Strengthening the Continuum of Care and Support

Caring for someone with HIV, a pathology that has multiple consequences, requires multiple skills. PLWHA benefit from a system of care and support provided by a variety of public and private sector actors and civil society. By strengthening coordination of these various services, one can improve the quality of care and support they receive.

The system of care and support in Senegal is based on access to products and services provided through health structures. The decentralization of the system has highlighted the importance of developing an integrated strategy for the supply of services based on a continuum of care and on the clarification of the roles and responsibilities of various actors in the system.

ACI, in the context of our sub-agreement with FHI, has participated actively in strengthening the continuum of care and support on the regional level. Activities successfully implemented have included:

• Development of a model to advocate for strengthening the continuum of care and support on the decentralized level
• Analysis of available services, and opportunities and constraints for care and support
• Organization of regional advocacy workshops in Ziguinchor, Kolda, Louga and Kaolack
• The process of strengthening the continuum of care and support in the Region of Thies was also facilitated by ACI.
• Development of follow up and monitoring activities

This process on the regional level has created:

• A shared understanding of the concept of continuum of care
• Increased commitment by service providers to strengthen the continuum of care
• Clarification of the roles of different types of actors (health sector, public non-health sector, private sector and civil society) and identification of potential areas for collaboration
• Creation of committees for the strengthening of the continuum of care on the regional level (Kaolack, Ziguinchor)
• Inclusion of activities to improve the continuum of care in Regional Action Plans

Conclusions

The comparative advantage of the contributions of civil society, private sector and sub-divisions of the public, non-health sector offer real opportunities to develop universal access to a diversified, high quality, sustainable offer of care and support services.

Improving partnerships between the private and public sectors and civil society is a requirement for program sustainability and a means of providing mutual skills development, sharing practices and opening up services.

But the commitment of various actors to strengthen the continuum of care is not, in itself, sufficient. Mechanisms are needed to collect and compare data in order to evaluate the effectiveness of services and service providers.

ACI will continue to help better define the package of services and actors at each level of the system and assist in the development of mechanisms and tools to strengthen the continuum of care

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