Behavior change for Universal Health

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:

1. breaking various myths
2. sharing continued education and awareness
3. 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