Community-Based Health Care: Lessons from Bangladesh to Boston

Developed in cooperation with the Harvard School of Public Health, this publication focuses on the global development of community-oriented primary care. Thirty-six experts contribute to the book, which is meant to be a resource for students and primary care, policymakers, and public health practitioners from various backgrounds.

Part I focuses on developing countries, and includes the following: a chapter on the achievements of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (now BRAC), which serves 38 million people; a look at effective approaches and methods from smaller programmes in Bolivia, Nepal, and other countries; and descriptions of how techniques such as census-taking, home visiting, and community-based health information systems have helped bring sustainable health services to more people.

Part II describes and analyses experiences from the United States and Germany that parallel successful experiences in developing countries. Chapters on the United States describe programmes from rural West Virginia to poor, multicultural communities of Boston, where, for example, an HIV/AIDS initiative draws on a case management approach developed in Haiti. The anthology also offers information about the scaling up and financing of community health programmes, and includes a glossary, bibliography, and index.

Click here to order the book on the MSH site.