Your Role in Nutritional and Preventive Health Care

At the community level you might find a limited health  infrastructure. The primary health centre and the staff associated with it would probably be your main resource. 

So what would be your role in  involving the community in nutritional  and preventive health care? In brief  it  should concentrate on  the following: 

• promoting preventive measures in  dealing with nutritional problems/high risk groups in the population
• advising people who are already suffering from diseases/who are at risk of developing a disease
• putting people in  touch with primary health centre/sub centre staff or other field level functionaries who can help
• informing the community  about referral  services where available (i.e. provisions for referring a patient to a larger hospital in  serious cases) 

You would  notice the emphasis on prevention. This is of vital importance. People in the community may not be aware of facilities already being provided by the Government/voluntary organizations. Even if they are aware they may not be  using  the services. And further even if they do use  these services they make no effort to help increase the outreach of a programme  or  services. This indicates the various levels at, which you as a community  worker can help. 

In most cases of illness, information you can provide can  help in  management of routine cases. (Unless you are a doctor and you have access to a hospital, medical centre or clinic you would not be able to personally handle more serious cases.) So this is where  your role  can be crucial. Involving relatives and  other community members is a constructive step and can be of great help in spreading information quickly. 

We have  mentioned the group of people who are at risk of developing disease as an important target group for education and advice. For  this group our intervention can make  the difference between  maintenance of good  health or  appearance of a disease. 

So now let's move  on to diet therapy in disease in  the  next  unit.  But before we do that here's a quick look at the central theme: prevention of nutrition-related deficiencies/disorders. We have already covered these aspects earlier but this brief summary would help you.