Community Empowerment in Health
Miss Lily El Ferawati, a lecturer of the Communications program, at BINUS University International was invited to deliver a speech at a program held by the Health Department of East Jakarta Administrative City called “Monitoring dan Evaluasi Program Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Bidang Kesehatan” (Monitoring and Evaluation of Community Empowerment in Health).
The event took place on July 24th, 2024 from 12.00 to 15.00, involving 20 representatives of the Public Health Centers and PKK (Pemberdayaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga) from 5 sub-districts in the administrative city. Each representative of the Public Health Centre presented the report of Community Empowerment programs they handled within the second quarter of 2024.
Miss Lily served as an assessor by which she provided comments on the report presented by each representative. After the report presentation, Miss Lily delivered her speech to explain the evaluation and the strategies for innovative community empowerment programs.
By definition, community empowerment in health refers to “a fundamental idea in health promotion that can help communities determine priorities, make choices, develop strategies and implement them to improve health and minimize health disparities” (Kruahong et al., 2023).
The pillars of community empowerment in health
Community empowerment in health revolves around four main pillars as listed below.
- Health education
- Fundamental health services
- Community participation
- Access to resources
The reports presented by the health representatives showed that the community empowerment programs in East Jakarta are dominantly centered around providing fundamental health services through Posyandu (Pos Pelayanan Kesahatan Terpadu/Integrated Health Service Posts) and its subsidiaries including Posyandu Lansia (Posyandu for aging community members), Posyandu Remaja (Posyandu for teenagers), and Posyandu KIA (Posyandu for Mother and Kids), as well as Posbindu (Pos Binaan Terpadu/Integrated Health Monitoring Posts).
To ensure its success, community empowerment programs must achieve five principles. According to Kusbaryanto, the five principles are as follows:
- Enhancing community potential,
- Developing community mutual cooperation,
- Exploring community contributions
- Establishing partnerships, and
- Enforcing decentralization efforts.
The community empowerment programs in East Jakarta as reported by the health representatives showed that the programs heavily rely on the Puskesmas or Pusat Kesehatan Masayarakat (Public Health Centre) as the main provider of health services and empowerment. It indicates that the community empowerment programs lack decentralization and community cooperation.
Strategies for building a community empowerment program in health
Based on the challenges reported by the health representatives, it is recommended to have some strategies for community empowerment programs in health. Basically, before developing a community empowerment program, some strategies are needed including
- Asking the target community what they need in terms of health empowerment.
- Learning the demographics of the target audience.
- Collaborating and working closely with respected community leaders.
- Continuing and develop existing programs.
- Choosing a communal time for the community, such as a public holiday.
- Providing incentives to attract participation of community members.
Some innovative ideas that can be implemented include
- Rural Aging Action Network
- Establishing an elderly care action group in collaboration between BKD (Badan Kerjasama Desa/Village Cooperation Body), RT (Rukun Tetangga/Neighborhood), and religious groups (church/majlis taklim).
- Meals on Wheels
- A free nutritious meal program is provided periodically by exchanging AMDK bottles/health screenings.
- 2 Kilo for 2 Kilo
- Social movement of walking at least 2 km a day (using Strava/a walk tracker) that can be exchanged for points. Points can be exchanged for other prizes/incentives.
- Storytelling-based health education
- Counseling program by sharing success stories of community members in implementing health programs.
- Community Health Ambassador
- Holding a Health Ambassador selection competition. Those selected will be community representatives as extensions of the Health Center in promoting health.
- Community Health Media
- Building a digital space to share stories about community health on social media.
Conducting community empowerment programs in health indeed is challenging especially when community members have little knowledge and consciousness about personal health. The role of Puskesmas will continue dominant but it is possible to promote larger community participation and volunteerism through continuous health communication and social partnership involving education institutions, private entities, and health providers.
References
Kruahong, S., Tankumpuan, T., Kelly, K., Davidson, P. M., & Kuntajak, P. (2023). Community empowerment: A concept analysis. Journal of advanced nursing, 79(8), 2845-2859.
Kusbaryanto (n.d.) Pemberdayaan Masyarakat di Sektor Kesehatan. Accessed on 22 July 2024 from https://myklass-fkik.umy.ac.id/pluginfile.php/55949/mod_resource/content/1/PEMBERDAYAAN%20MASYARAKAT%20DI%20SEKTOR%20KESEHATAN%20-%20dr.%20kusbaryanto.pdf
Advocacy and Communication Solutions. (2020). 12 Tips for Community Engagement. Accessed on 22 July 2024 from https://www.advocacyandcommunication.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ACS_Community_Engagement_Tips.pdf
Contributor: Lily El Ferawati
Editor: Lily El Ferawati