The village health worker: lackey or liberator?
Werner, D.
World Health Forum 2(1): 46-68
1981
ISSN/ISBN: 0251-2432 Document Number: 384814
The health of people in villages or slums is far-more influenced by politics and power groups and by the distribution of land and wealth than by the treatment and prevention of disease. Werner provides some background ideas on the controversial role of the village health worker based mainly on his experience in Mexico. Programmes and functions can be evaluated along a continuum ranging from community-supportive to community-oppressive. Primary health workers come in two major groups: auxiliary nurses or health technicians, and health promoters or village health workers. Their functions vary enormously between programmes. An appendix compares the medical doctor and the primary health worker. The issue of whether, to be successful, primary health workers should also act as agents of political reform, is further discussed by nine experienced health workers from various parts of the world and with different political and social backgrounds.