Frontline health clinics adapt to climate challenges with assistance from a free resource

As appointments with general practitioners (GP) are often short and hard to get, community link workers have the time and resources necessary to support those in need of care for non-medical issues, like energy management, mood stabilizing and mental health concerns. Appointments with link workers can last up to an hour, versus the average 10 minutes with a GP, and provide comprehensive care that can be followed up on by a GP if any clinical attention is needed.

Worker-owned home-care cooperatives are emerging as an alternative to the for-profit agencies that dominate America's direct-care sector. In these cooperatives, professional caregivers earn an average of $2 more per hour than the industry standard, share in business decision-making, and stay on the job at nearly double the rate of workers at traditional agencies. Patients also stay with co-op agencies twice as long, suggesting higher satisfaction and quality of care.

Local organizations are working with the Department of Health and UNICEF to eradicate polio in Taraba state. By collaborating with community leaders, they’ve been able to spread positive information about polio vaccines, encouraging more families to vaccinate their children.

The Mamacare Foundation has trained over 860 traditional birth attendants (TBAs) in hygiene, safe delivery practices, danger-sign recognition, and timely referral systems over the past decade to improve maternal care in the region. The program pairs each TBA with a supervising midwife, creating a collaborative bridge between traditional and modern maternal care. The training has increased referrals from TBAs to clinics by 40%, and district hospitals report fewer emergency cases arriving in critical condition since the Foundation has formed.

Led by a local doctor and supported by Pfizer's Accord initiative and other partners, Rwanda launched a one-month training fellowship to train local doctors with specialized rheumatology skills. Since its implementation in February 2024, more than 1,800 patients have received rheumatological care, many for the first time in their lives.

The Abiye Project registered over 20,000 pregnant women using a community-based model to ensure they receive proper healthcare. The program connected women with trained health rangers who served as liaisons with traditional birth attendants (TBAs). When TBAs’ resistance stalled the program, the government introduced financial incentives, paying them for each patient referral, leading to more hospital births and a reduced child and maternal mortality rate.

Morehouse School of Medicine is training local women to become doulas through its Perinatal Patient Navigators program. A dozen participants — all Black women — recently graduated from the program after five months of training, ready to provide care and support to other women of color in rural communities. Studies show the presence of a doula improves labor and delivery outcomes, reduces stress and results in fewer expensive childbirth interventions, like C-sections.

Modeled after a similar program in Costa Rica, Neighborhood Nursing has teams of nurses and community health workers who host weekly visits throughout the community to provide free medical care — particularly preventative care — to those who need it. Neighborhood Nursing has helped build trust between residents and healthcare workers and aims to serve more than 4,000 people within the next year.

The world’s first malaria vaccine was introduced in a pilot program in 2019 and found to reduce severe cases of malaria by 22%. Since then, the vaccine has been rolled out to several regions and has administered more than 1.8 million doses throughout the country, which has contributed to reducing prevalence rates from 27% in 2015, to 3.6% today.

The Community Health Influencer, Promoter and Services (CHIPS) program aims to reduce maternal and child mortality by increasing access to primary healthcare services. CHIPS workers conduct weekly home visits where they provide helpful information on healthcare services, preventive medicine and connections to nearby health facilities. CHIPS launched in 2018 and in 2019, data showed that maternal deaths had decreased from 120 to 90.