Prof. Helen Schneider

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https://hdl.handle.net/10566/1725

Prof. Helen Schneider

Position: Director Department: School of Public Health Faculty: Faculty of Community and Health Sciences Qualifications: MBChB (Cape Town), MMed (Witwatersrand), DCH (SA College of Medicine), DTMH (Witwatersrand) My publications in this repository More about me: here and here Prof Helen Schneider pays tribute to Prof Brian O’Connell Prof Helen Schneider visits deep rural area in Chhattisgarh, India with SOPH PhD student Sulakshana Nandi Tel: 021 959 3563 Fax: 021 959 2872 Email: hschneider@uwc.ac.za

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Browsing by Subject "Community-based health services"

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    Applying a framework for assessing the health system challenges to scaling up mHealth in South Africa
    (BioMed Central, 2012) Leon, Natalie; Schneider, Helen; Daviaud, Emmanuelle
    Background: Mobile phone technology has demonstrated the potential to improve health service delivery, but there is little guidance to inform decisions about acquiring and implementing mHealth technology at scale in health systems. Using the case of community-based health services (CBS) in South Africa, we apply a framework to appraise the opportunities and challenges to effective implementation of mHealth at scale in health systems. Methods: A qualitative study reviewed the benefits and challenges of mHealth in community-based services in South Africa, through a combination of key informant interviews, site visits to local projects and document reviews. Using a framework adapted from three approaches to reviewing sustainable information and communication technology (ICT), the lessons from local experience and elsewhere formed the basis of a wider consideration of scale up challenges in South Africa. Results: Four key system dimensions were identified and assessed: government stewardship and the organisational, technological and financial systems. In South Africa, the opportunities for successful implementation of mHealth include the high prevalence of mobile phones, a supportive policy environment for eHealth, successful use of mHealth for CBS in a number of projects and a well-developed ICT industry. However there are weaknesses in other key health systems areas such as organisational culture and capacity for using health information for management, and the poor availability and use of ICT in primary health care. The technological challenges include the complexity of ensuring interoperability and integration of information systems and securing privacy of information. Finally, there are the challenges of sustainable financing required for large scale use of mobile phone technology in resource limited settings. Conclusion: Against a background of a health system with a weak ICT environment and limited implementation capacity, it remains uncertain that the potential benefits of mHealth for CBS would be retained with immediate large-scale implementation. Applying a health systems framework facilitated a systematic appraisal of potential challenges to scaling up mHealth for CBS in South Africa and may be useful for policy and practice decision-making in other low- and middle-income settings.
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    Development of non-profit organisations providing health and social services in rural South Africa: a three year longitudinal study
    (PLOS, 2013) Moshabela, Mosa; Gitomer, Shira; Qhibi, Bongi; Schneider, Helen
    INTRODUCTION: In an effort to increase understanding of formation of the community and home-based care economy in south Africa, we investigated the origin and development of non-profit organisations (NPOs) providing home-and community-based care for health and social services in a remote rural area of South Africa. METHODS: Over a three-yer period (2010-12), we identified and tracked all NPOs providing health care and social services in Bushbuckridge sub-district through the use of local government records, snowballing techniques, and attendance at NPO networking meetings - recording both existing and new NPOS, NPO founders and managers were interviewed in face--to-face in-depth interview, and their organisational records were reviewed. RESULTS: Forty-seven NPOs were formed prior to teh study period, and 14 during the sutyd period - six in 2010, six in 2011 and two in 2012, while four ceased operation, representing a 22%growth in the number of NPOs during the study period. Histories of NPOs showed a steady rise in the NPO formation over a 20 year period, from one (1991-1995) to 12 (1996-2000), 16 (2001 - 2005) and 24 (2006-2010) new organisations formed in each period. Furthermore, the histories of formation revealed three predominant milestones - loose association, formal formation and finally registration. CONCLUSION: We observed rapid growth of the NPO sector providing community-based health and social services. Women dominated the rural NPO sector, which is being seen as creating occupation and employment opportunities. The implications of this growth in the NPO sector providing community-based health and social services needs to be further explored and suggests the need for greater coordination and possibly regulation.