What is the issue?
- WHO commemorates this year's World Health Day (April 7) with the theme “Universal Health Coverage: Everyone, Everywhere”.
- It is essential to understand at this point that healthcare policies incorporate the behavioural component in it.
What are the concerns?
- Health clinics that are accessible and affordable still go unutilised in rural and under-served people.
- Behavioural patterns, old traditions, conventional beliefs, and habits have a strong hold on people.
- There is a long entrenched practice of going to untrained and unqualified doctors.
- There is evidently a lack of trust on existing scientific healthcare models.
- All these in turn affect the success of healthcare efforts.
What is desired?
- The low turnout witnessed at health outlets call for a shift in the approach.
- It takes concerted efforts to address this which include:
- breaking various myths
- sharing continued education and awareness
- rendering door-to-door services especially for women and child care
- Notably holding camps and reaching out to the villages proved to be more effective.
- It triggered a change in the behavioural patterns of the villagers who began trusting a scientifically sound model.
- They started moving away from the traditional practices.
What should policies aim for?
- Modifying individual behaviour is essential for the success of any public policy promoting health awareness and healthcare delivery.
- Effective people participation and engagement is significant.
- More interactive health policies are likely of developing public understanding, appealing to a larger consciousness and modifying habits.
- The health models need to be thought-out and viewed from public behavioural psychology during inception and while being drafted.
- Social media, digitisation, tele-assisted medicine, video and audio campaigns can play a significant role in reaching out to people.
Source: BusinessLine
