In South Africa, the mother-infant relationship is often conceptualized using international frameworks. Yet, contextual knowledge of mother-infant bonding is essential, as a strong mother-infant bond enhances a mother's capacity to care for her infant, and is associated with many positive child development outcomes. Community health workers work…

Community health workers possess valuable insight into the experiences of South Africa's children and caregivers. However, their knowledge is often overlooked in efforts to understand local realities, inform interventions, and develop relevant policies. This study aimed to explore community health workers' perspectives of the first 1000 days of…

Children in low-income communities are at risk for developmental delays and sensory losses. mHealth screening tools enable community health workers to detect developmental delays and sensory losses. This study aims to describe a combined (developmental and sensory -- hearing and vision) mHealth-supported screening programme conducted by community…

Home-based care facilities provide basic healthcare services to people too sick or frail to access formal clinics and hospitals. These facilities produce 'healthcare risk waste' which must be managed responsibly, and it is the work of Environmental Health Practitioners working within municipalities to ensure that the waste produced by home-based…

Introduction: Globally, more than 50 million children have hearing or vision loss. Most of these sensory losses are identified late due to a lack of systematic screening, making treatment and rehabilitation less effective. Mobile health (mHealth), which is the use of smartphones or wireless devices in health care, can improve access to screening…

This paper reflects on a process evaluation of a home visitation programme in South Africa. The programme, implemented in two low-income communities, focused on the reduction of risks to unintentional childhood injuries. The evaluation comprised a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, including observations in conjunction with an…

Examined how five South African interprofessional partnerships involved local communities and voluntary agencies in long-term health care planning and delivery, highlighting barriers to participation, comparing the views of four stakeholder groups, noting the costs and benefits of participation, and evaluating satisfaction, ownership,…

Introduces a collection of papers that focus on such topics as collaboration in health services planning, shared culture in community-based mental health, interagency cooperation in health and social services in mental health, the role of volunteers in community partnerships, issues facing workers trying to implement workplace change, and the use…

Each issue in the 2001 edition of the Australian Transcultural Mental Health Network (ATMHN) newsletter represents a theme critical to mental health practitioners. The Spring/Summer 2001 issue features articles on building communities of support for refugees, providing support to these families in cultural transitions, and studying depression…

The Department of Community Nursing and the Open Learning Centre of Technikon Natal (South Africa) and the community-owned Community Development Programme are collaborating to provide online learning to rural and urban community nurses. The project involves the development of a multimedia pharmacology course, a virtual Internet class, and the…

With the highest national HIV prevalence in the world, the issue of HIV/AIDS is one of the most pressing socio-political matters in South Africa. It directly affects between five and six million people. A conservative estimate suggests that 600 people die every day of illnesses related to HIV/AIDS and the number of AIDS orphans in South Africa is…

The Medical University of South Africa (Medunsa) was founded to address underrepresentation of blacks in health professions and inadequate health care in the homelands. It trains most allied health professionals in the country, emphasizing community service and preventive medicine. Medunsa and American health professions schools can learn from…