Practice in Attending
the Sick
8CHAPTER
8-1
THE IMPORTANCE OF A SOLID BASE
IN CURATIVE SKILLS
As we discussed in Chapter 3, ability to attend the sick is one of the most
important skills a community health worker can learn. This is because:
• Curative medicine answers a strong felt need. Most people show far more
interest in curing their ills than in preventing them—at least at first.
• A health worker who is an effective healer will win people’s confidence and
cooperation more readily—even for preventive measures.
• Early, safe, low-cost treatment by people in their own homes is an essential
part of prevention. It keeps many minor problems from becoming severe.
• Attending the sick provides a key opportunity for health education that relates
to the family’s immediate problems and concerns. (See the discussion
below.)
• Only when health workers are well versed in curative medicine, including
its risks and limitations, can they help people overcome common
misunderstandings about modern medicine. (Training health workers only in
‘prevention’ can actually lead to greater misuse, overuse, and mystification* of
medicine!)
Appropriate curative medicine is a key part of prevention.
Treatment as a door to prevention
Many health workers have found that
the ‘clinical consultation’, or occasion
when a sick person seeks treatment, is
one of the best opportunities to talk about
preventive measures. Some find this
more effective than organized health talks
in small groups because . . .
• it is more immediate and personal,
• the sick person and her family are
very much concerned with the
illness in question, and
• many people come for treatment
who might not come to health talks.
CURATIVE MEDICINE A
DOORWAY TO PREVENTION
*Mystification: Making something seem magical or supernatural, beyond the understanding of ordinary
people.