Good health - the state of physical, mental and social well-being – enables us to enjoy our human rights in fuller measure. Our health activities are intended to reduce individual and community vulnerability. Increased life expectancy, changing birth rate patterns, persistent gender inequalities, together with social, economic and personal behavioural trends, have all contributed to a significant change in disease patterns. Overall, these patterns are shifting towards non-communicable conditions.
By 2020, the leading worldwide causes of death, disease and disability are expected to be heart disease and stroke, depression, road traffic crashes, trauma from violence and conflicts, and respiratory disease, along with perinatal and maternal complications, tuberculosis, HIV infection and diarrhoeal disease. Malaria and other communicable diseases will diminish but remain significant in lower income countries. In addition, new viruses and other disease organisms with the potential to cause epidemics and pandemics will continue to occur. Our specific priorities for action are guided, therefore, by locally prevalent health patterns, within an overall approach as follows:
- We seek to expand the access that people in under-served communities have to primary and public health services, including during emergencies. We support health authorities by promoting basic skills in first aid, and using proven prevention techniques to tackle vector-borne and other communicable conditions.
- We promote voluntary, non-remunerated blood donation, and advocate for the safe provision of blood and blood products. By dealing promptly with health emergencies and enabling early treatment of common problems such as malnutrition and maternal and perinatal complications, serious secondary consequences are reduced.
- We support improved healthcare to enhance HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for community-based volunteers. We also support the “Global Alliance on HIV and AIDS” in Belize, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
- We encourage action on the underlying social, behavioural and environmental factors that determine good health. This action includes social mobilization to act specifically on the local factors that have the greatest potential to reduce preventable death, disease, injury and disability (such as Club 25 focusing on Youth). These local factors also include greater access to portable water and sanitation.
Community-Based Health and First Aid (CBHFA)
The goal of CBHFA is the creation of a healthy community. Creating a healthy community is a lifelong process, one that requires constant nurturing and persistence. CBHFA is an integrated community-based approach in which Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers work with their communities on disease prevention, health promotion, first aid and disaster preparedness and response.
CBHFA starts with a community dialogue or forum. The dialogue works to identify community priorities and solutions, and leads to activities to address the priorities. A community dialogue gathers participants to exchange information face to face, to share personal stories and experiences, to express perspectives honestly, to prioritize issues, to develop solutions to community concerns and to identify opportunities.
Tools such as the participatory rural appraisal (PRA), vulnerability and capacity assessment (VCA), and other participatory assessment tools can be of use in this community dialogue.
