The Use Of Epidemiology In Local Health Planning

a training manual

Plot

This book is designed as a practical tool for use in the democratization of health planning, using existing local level health personnel and training them to collect and use locally available epidemiological information. The aim is to introduce staff to rational health planning on the basis of a detailed diagnosis of the local situation. By bringing together epidemiological and planning techniques, this manual enables trained local health teams to base their planning on a sound analysis of the health and health services problems in their own districts and communities.The educational approach of this manual is a dynamic and participatory one. Its problem-oriented focus emphasizes continual interaction between facilitators and trainees and rests on the participants' own experiences. A variety of training techniques are used in order to make the learning procedure both pleasant and unintimidating, but without losing track of the overall objective. The use of statistics and percentages is kept to a minimum, but the course can easily be enriched by introducing more complicated topics and more sophisticated materials, thereby making the manual useful also in post-graduate training in public health and international community health courses.The manual has been successfully field-tested in various parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America (in its Spanish language edition) and Europe.