The Role of Village Health Volunteers in the Family Care Team

Abstract

This research aims to study the role of the village health volunteers in the family
care team during the 2015 fiscal year. The study utilized mixed-methods approach to collect
data in which qualitative and quantitative methodologies were applied. A survey was
conducted among 967 village health volunteers and focus group discussions were held with
160 people’s health network members in eight provinces in four regions. The descriptive
statistics and content analysis were used for the data analysis.
The study found that the village health volunteers play significant role in the
family care team in different aspects especially in being a good role model for healthy living
which accounted for 20.5% of the survey result. 17.7% of survey result shows that they play
a prominent role in data collection; data processing (14.5%); health promotion and disease
control (14.2%). The areas required improvement among the village health volunteers are 1)
leading a wrong behaviors modification (3.9%); 2) strategizing new activities for health
promotion and disease control (2.3%); and 3) collaborating with public health network/
family care team in home visit and care for patient couch at home/patient referral (1.0%).
Qualitative data found that the people’s health network has positive attitude
towards village health volunteers in every area. These include village health volunteers’ skills
in coordination, data preparation, transfer of knowledge on patient care, local collaboration as
well as their dedication. The research result shows that village health volunteers’ direct
experience in providing care to patients with chronic disease or elderly care is an advantage
and should be utilized to advance the knowledge by promoting learning and exchange
among the groups. Emphasis should be put on the learning methods that develop village
health volunteers’ skills on the works related to prevention and health promotion and draw
their experience to develop work plan/health promotion program for the people in the area.