RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
Introduction
Who needs information?
Health, rehabilitation and community workers, educators, researchers, policy
makers, managers, local communities and self-help groups all need
information. Information is especially important for training health workers.
There is plenty of evidence that access to the right information at the right time
can mean the difference between life and death. Former executive director of
UNICEF, James Grant, estimated that getting medical and health knowledge to
those who needed it, and applying it, could have prevented 34 million deaths
each year in the late 1980s.
Health sector reforms, changing disease patterns, and advances in technology make it
vitally important that everyone involved in health care and promotion has access to
relevant information – not only during their initial training, but throughout their
working lives, to enable them to keep up-to-date and develop their skills.
Health workers and educators need basic data on the disease profiles of the
local area, the latest techniques in diagnosis and treatment, how to
communicate with patients, how to work with other sectors such as education
or environment, ideas on how to undertake health promotion, and,
increasingly, good information about how to run a health centre or a small
health post.
Health, community and rehabilitation workers may need to gain a better
understanding of the needs and rights of disabled people, and learn how to
support disabled people to lead as full a life as possible.
Researchers need factual information on the area they are researching, and they
need to know what research is being carried out, or has been completed and the
results, to ensure that they are not duplicating any work.
Policy makers and managers need information on epidemiology, population
size and characteristics, finances, staffing needs and facilities. They also need
information on disadvantaged groups, the work of other sectors that contribute
to health, and structures that promote community involvement.
Local communities and self-help groups need to learn how to participate in
planning, implementing and evaluating programmes, promote healthy living
and prevent disease, campaign for better services, promote their own services,
and learn about their rights.
How can resource centres help?
Information plays an important part in the wider learning process – helping
health workers to understand the context of their work, follow new
approaches, undertake new responsibilities, improve their practice and remind
them of basic concepts.