Chennai: While importance has been given to treating diseases, healthcare experts feel that measures to prevent illness are inadequate. They say this has been the case in Tamilnadu and elsewhere, too.
Coupled with this is the lack of being financially prepared during health adversities, said Swasti Health Catalyst chief impact officer, Kallan Gowda.
The not-for-profit organisation, working across several countries and in India for the past several years to catalyse change, feels that bringing health and wealth together can make a difference in the prevention sector.
To facilitate this, they launched ‘i4We – Invest for Wellness’ programme that helps rural communities be prepared for health crisis.
In Tamilnadu, the programme is being implemented in seven locations, including Theni, Madurai, Dindigul, Thanjavur and Salem, for the past six months, targetting marginalised communities.
“While the primary goal is to transform health and well-being of the communities we work with, through this initiative, we bring in different components to empower them,” said Kallan Gowda.
The model combines medical, behavioural and social science with an appropriate mix of technology and health financing.
On how it works, he added, “The programme is tailored for the different communities we work with in India. At the grassroots-level, we identify a local organisation that has already been working with the marginalised community and appoint ‘wellness facilitators’. The selection is done based on the possession of entrepreneurial skills, that they should be from the neighbourhood, be educated and have knowledge to operate a mobile phone. For every 300 members, there would be a facilitator and for every five such groups, we have a community wellness manager.”
The facilitators mobilise the community to form ‘Aarogya’ groups where they save Rs 50 every week to ensure they are financially able to afford treatment.
Although the focus is wellness, the organisation brings in the ‘savings’ quotient and gets them to attend health camps, thereby preventing illnesses.
Free treatment for primary health conditions is given and the organisation ensures that the same illness does not recur.
“The rural population spend about 70 per cent from their pockets on diseases that can easily be prevented. We educate the patients on preventing them,” Kallan Gowda said.
However, when this model was implemented in Tamilnadu, the organisation stated that people were hesitant as forming groups is something that is not new and has been happening since ages.
“Nevertheless, since we had roped in the organisations that had already been working with them at the grassroots-level, it helped us proceed,” he said.
The coordinators had to ensure that there were no defaulters.
The strategies implemented to ensure wellness of the population are treating express illness (giving treatment in the first instance), identification of first responders to act immediately if a family member takes ill, systematic diagnosis and treatment of hidden conditions and prevent illness and promote wellness.
So far, 28 health facilitators have been appointed in the past five months and 18 members covered the basic target of 300 and 7,500 members have been reached out, among which 4,600 people have registered with the programme, Kallan Gowda said.