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  • Self-Care

Self-Care

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines self-care as “the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.”

The concept of self-care is not new; however, rapid advancement in medical and digital technologies is accelerating the range of interventions that can be acquired and managed more directly by individuals. Such “self-care interventions” offer self-directed, convenient, and quality health care that can contribute to universal health coverage.

On June 24, 2019, the WHO released the Consolidated Guideline on Self-Care Interventions for Health: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) stating, “self-care interventions are among the most promising and exciting new approaches to improve health and well-being, both from a health systems perspective and for people who use these interventions.” The consolidated guideline calls for the adoption of national guidelines and includes people-centered, evidence-based recommendations for key self-care interventions for SRHR such as HIV self-testing, human papillomavirus self-sampling, and self-administered injectable contraception. The COVID-19 crisis has created a greater urgency to advance self-care work in order to offer continuity of SRHR services in low physical touch environments. On June 1, 2020, the WHO endorsed self-care approaches as a part of its COVID-19 Operational Guidance.

Image above: Self-care in the context of interventions linked to health systems, from WHO Consolidated Guideline on Self-Care Interventions for Health

In this Trending Topic, we provide a selection of tools and project examples on the topic of self-care, and we welcome our readers to upload their own materials on this topic.


Banner Image: U.S. Ambassador Ted Osius and his spouse Clayton Bond join Vietnamese government officials and celebrities to demonstrate how to do the HIV self-test. Ho Chi Minh City, August 26, 2016. Photo: Phuong Nguyen/USAID. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/49951534@N08/29129213082 on July 14, 2020. 

 

Resources

  • Tools
  • Examples

Acceleration of Self-Care in the Time of COVID-19

Self-care can mean better, more accessible, participatory, affordable, quality healthcare. In the case of the emergency contraceptive pill or acetaminophen when available over the counter, such self-care will require minimal or no interaction with a health worker. However, frequently, for COVID-19 and many health interventions, self-care requires a carefully choreographed set of interactions between health workers and individuals to enable people to take greater control over their healthcare.

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Self-Care: A Cost Effective Solution for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health for All

This policy brief is based on a review of literature and interviews with community health, quality-of-care, self-care and MNCH experts.

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Self-Care Quality of Care Framework

Population Services International (PSI) and a consortium of organizations under the auspices of the Self-Care Trailblazers Working Group have developed a Quality of Care Framework for Self-care aligned with the WHO Consolidated Guideline on Self-Care Interventions for Health.

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Advocacy Roadmap - Igniting a Self-Care Movement for Sexual and Reproductive Health

This roadmap is the result of a series of in-country advocacy workshops and consultations held between July 2019 and January 2020. The advocacy roadmap development was facilitated by White Ribbon Alliance’s Global Secretariat in collaboration with the Self-Care Trailblazer Group (SCTG)—coordinated by Population Services International.

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Women and Girls Health and Rights Power Model

The Women and Girls Health and Rights Power Model (Power Model) and accompanying project planning materials were developed by White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) to support the advocacy and community engagement efforts of WRA National Alliances and other partners and stakeholders.

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Going Online to Accelerate the Impact of HIV Programs

Going Online is a vision and evolving framework for how HIV programs can use online and mobile platforms to accelerate impact toward meeting their HIV education, prevention, testing and treatment objectives.

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WHO Consolidated Guideline on Self-care Interventions for Health: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Self-care interventions are among the most promising and exciting new approaches to improve health and well-being, both from a health systems perspective and for people who use these interventions. The World Health Organization (WHO) uses the following working definition of self-care: Self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health- care provider

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Self-Care: Better Daily Health for Individuals and Societies

Establishing self-care as a global policy priority to improve health outcomes and address the sustainability of health systems around the world is both necessary and achievable.

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Who Self-Cares Wins

Global male life expectancy is four years lower than female and the ‘sex gap’ is widening. There are also significant variations in men’s health outcomes between and within countries. Improved men’s self-care practices would result in better health for men as well as for women and children. They would also help achieve UN’s SDGs and reduce costs for health systems.

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HIV Self-Test Kits in Barber Shops: Cote d'Ivoire

Cote d'Ivoire

This case study describes a pilot project in Cote d'Ivoire which promotes HIV self-testing via barbershops. Preliminary human-centered-based research resulted in a finding that barbershops were a key gathering point for men in Côte D’Ivoire. The HIV self testing promotions were also communicated via religious leaders and social media.

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Using Digital Technology for Sexual and Reproductive Health: Are Programs Adequately Considering Risk?

Bangladesh

This commentary follows the publication of Marie Stopes International's randomized control trial in Bangladesh which showed that mHealth to promote contraceptive use increased women’s report of gender-based violence.

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Supporting Menstrual Regulation through the Call Centre in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

This study highlights the importance of hotlines, combi-packs and clear packaging for ensuring that people can safely self-administer reproductive health medications.

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Self-Care in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: A New Frontier in Healthcare

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines self-care as the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote and maintain health, prevent disease, and cope with illness with or without the support of a healthcare provider. 

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Journey to DMPA-SC in the Sahel

Burkina
Niger
Senegal

This study took place between August and October 2017 within 5 study sites in Niger, Senegal, and Burkina Faso.

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Lessons Learned about the Introduction of Sayana Press in Madagascar

Madagascar

This study details the impact of the introduction of Sayana Press, an injectable contraceptive, in Madagascar. The study began in 2015.

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Costs and Cost-effectiveness of Subcutaneous DMPA through Different Delivery Channels: What the Evidence Tells Us

Recent evidence from African countries indicates that DMPA-SC may help reduce service delivery costs by catalyzing community-based distribution and remote provision of injectable contraception. Moreover, self-injection of DMPA-SC—when compared with clinic administration of traditional injectables—is not just cost-effective but cost saving when accounting for costs to both women and health systems.

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Is Contraceptive Self-injection Cost-effective Compared to Contraceptive Injections from Facility-Based health Workers? Evidence from Uganda

Uganda

A study was performed to assess the cost-effectiveness of self-injected subcutaneous depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-SC) compared to health-worker-administered intramuscular DMPA (DMPA-IM) in Uganda.

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July 14, 2020
October 6, 2020
Sandy Garcon
Kristy Kade
Megan Christofield
Kasey Henderson

This website is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Breakthrough-ACTION Project, supported by USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health, Bureau for Global Health, under Cooperative Agreement #AID-OAA-A-17-00017 with the Johns Hopkins University.

Breakthrough-ACTION is based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs (JHU∙CCP). The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of JHU∙CCP. The information provided on this website is not official U.S. Government information and does not necessarily represent the views or positions of USAID, the United States Government, or The Johns Hopkins University.

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