The health guides scheme in Belgaum and Gulbarga districts: an evaluation.

A primary health care (PHC) program in India the Health Guides Scheme utilizing volunteer workers selected by and from individual communities and trained in a government health institution was studied in the Belgaum and Gulbarga districts of Bangladore. From each of 10 PHC facilities 10 health guides working in 10 different villages were interviewed and information was collected with the help of a questionnaire. Using further questionnaires 4 community members from each of the 10 villages and 5 or 6 health personnel working in the PHC area were also interviewed. The age criterion (30 years) for engaging guides seemed not to be practicable and the study revealed that there were only 11 women out of the 102 total guides interviewed. 92 of the 102 guides were found having middle school education or above. Review committees were found to be totally absent while proper selection process for guides was found to be fulfilled in nearly 75% of villages studied. The Health Guides Scheme seems to have created a favorable impact on communities and should be extended. Training periods should be increased and types and quantities of medicines used should be examined and suitably changed.