Training for Community Health Agents

Background and context: Cancer still has many stigmas, despite numerous awareness campaigns people are slow to seek health services out of fear, shame or for not believing in healing. With this behavior come late to the diagnosis of many cancers that could have been cured if discovered at first. Community health agents (CHS) are the link between the public health service and the community and on average make 10 visits a day in the community where they work. They are able to translate the demands of the community, thus allowing them to identify and act effectively to solve the major problems: information about care with health and encourage women to seek out the basic health units (BHUs) regularly, to practice healthy habits and to perform the examinations, such as mammography and preventive and seek the results. Faced with this, the need arose to enable the CHS to intensify their actions with the population and to disseminate campaigns of prevention. Aim: 1. Increase the low number of women undergoing cervical and breast cancer screening and access to prevention and/or early diagnosis of cancer mainly in women. 2. Partnership with Health´s Secretary. 3. Qualify and standardize the information carried by CHS in accessible language. 4. Survey on local reality. Strategy/Tactics: 1. Train Community Health Agents on cancer prevention and early detection to qualify and standardize information brought to communities and to encourage healthy living behavior. 2. Partnership with Health´s Secretary for CHA with highly qualified professionals. 3. Promote events with themes that are attractive and relevant to the work of the agents and that maintains the interest of the Health`s Secretary in the partnership. Program/Policy process: AMUCC seeks to sensitize and engage the public health managers and actors of the municipalities in the activities and solutions on a reality that needs to change. It establishes partnerships with the Municipal Health`s Secretary and strengthens links to advocacy actions. Seeks advocacy to influence people, perceptions, policies, decisions, and public opinion on the problem of cancers. Distribution of information material. Outcomes: 1. The training began in 2 municipalities and expanded. Today, it is carried out in seven municipalities, totaling more than 750 trained agents per year and has repressed demand. 2. The project has impact on half a million people per month, considering that each agent contacts 30 people per day. In 20 days of work, one agent reaches 600 people. The 750 trained agents reach 450,000 people per month. 3. Obtain data through survey. What was learned: Importance of appreciating the work of the health agent who works directly with the population is fundamental to achieving positive results in the campaigns. 2. Use the opportunity to obtain data information on health habits through surveys. 3. The information agents bring in the surveys during training events is a valuable source of reality-based data.