This course explores why primary health care is central for achieving Health for All. It provides examples of how primary health care has been instrumental in approaching this goal in selected populations and how the principles of primary health care can guide future policies and actions. Two of the most inspiring, least understood, and most often derided terms in global health discourse are “Health for All” and “Primary Health Care.” In this course, we will explore these terms in the context of global health, their origins and meanings, the principles upon which they rest, and examples of how these principles have been implemented at both small and large scale. We will also explore some ultra-low-cost approaches to Health for All through primary health care, and the promise that primary health care holds for eventually achieving Health for All. Each module of this course consists of approximately one hour or lecture, approximately one hour of additional readings or video presentations, and two additional hours devoted to studying for each of the quizzes, writing and evaluating two short peer-review assignments, and participating in the discussion forums. Developed in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Open Education Lab.
Course Introduction
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From the course by Johns Hopkins University
Health for All Through Primary Health Care
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From the lesson
Primary Health Care and Health for All: An Introduction
In this module, we'll go over some basics about the course and introduce you to the concept of primary health care as well as the history of its development. There is a short review quiz at the end of the module.
Meet the Instructors
Dr. Henry Perry, MD, PhD, MPHSenior Scientist, International Health
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Welcome everyone, to Health for All Through Primary Healthcare.
I'm going to call this the Coursera express.
I think we're getting on a bus, and we're going to travel around together.
And we're going to have fun together. We're going to learn new things together,
see new things together. We're going to go backward in time and
we're going to go forward in time. We're going to go back to the origins of
primary healthcare, almost 100 years ago. And we're going to think forward about
when applying the principles of primary healthcare might mean for the lives of
millions of people around the world. We're going to be visiting programs as
they've been developed in Asia and Africa.
And Latin America. And we're going to be talking about how
working with communities and partnership can make a real difference in the health
status and the empowerment of local people.
My name is Henry Perry. I'm a faculty member here at the Johns
Hopkins-Bloomberg School of Public Health.
And I've spent most of my career working with primary health care programs in
various countries around the world. I've lived for several years in Bolivia,
and Bangladesh, and then Haiti,
and I worked in many other countries with many other organizations.
And over this time I have had the great privilege of getting to know some of the
great leaders of primary healthcare. Some of the great innovators, innovators.
And I realise the importance of their contribution now more and more.
And I want to share that with you. And so as we move through this course.
I'll be sharing some of my own personal perspectives but also drawing you in to
some of the excited things that have been happening and are happening at the
present time. We are all priveleged to be a part of
this global human family but we also realize the great unmet needs that exist,
particularly in health. And these are so tragic because so many
people are dying from readily preventable or treatable conditions some, so many
people are suffering because of our lack of interest and compassion,
and concern. And so the purpose of this course is to
help you think about how you and your own situation with whatever need or resources
that you may have. Might be able to think creatively.
About addressing some of these issues in partnership with local people whose
health needs are not being met at the present time.
I believe that the concepts of primary health care, as we outline them here, and
as were first expressed at the international conference on primary
health care in 1978, and the declaration of alma ata.
I believe that these principals deserve an increasingly strong push from all of
us who are concerned about these issues. Not only from us as individuals, or,
perhaps, as public health proffesionals. But those of us as people working in
programs, in ministry of health, and MGO's.
And maybe government officials of other kinds, donors, academics, international
officials. We all need to be reminded about what
these basic principals are. And how we can more effectively apply
them in our work. We live with a terribly unjust world.
We're all aware of this. But still the fact that seven million
children are dying around the world every year from readily preventable or
treatable conditions is just tragic. It's morally unacceptable.
It's inexcusable, and we know that through working with
partnerships through working with mothers that many of these deaths could be
prevented through very low-cost simple approaches.
Handwashing. 1,000,000 deaths each year are caused by
a lack of hand-washing. Exclusive breast feeding.
We know that mothers, after they give birth to the, to their child, for the
first six months of life, they can provide all of the baby's nutrient needs
through breast feeding. And when they're not exclusively breast
feeding, the children are getting exposed to pathogens that cause diarrhea.
And so, we have failed to get the message across that exclusive breastfeeding is a
vitally important healthy behavior that mothers can undertake to.
Give good nutrition to their babies and to reduce the risk of mortality.
These are but two examples of the kinds of things we'll be talking about in this
course that are practical, simple, readily applicable by communities.
But, they need help, they need tentacle support, they need some guidance.
They need some encouragement. And so that is what we'll be discussing
in this course. This course is for anybody who is
interested in the well-being of our global human family.
You don't need any special technical skills.
No formal training in health. We're here to work with you on a very
simple, very, very feasible sort of a way in which you can develop some principals
yourself, derived from what we're talking about that you can use in your own life
and work. Primary healthcare and health for all are
two of the most difficult to understand concepts in global health.
They seem so simple on the surface, but when we get into 'em there's a real depth
of meaning that is enriching as we think about it.
And so I look forward to working with you and thinking with you about how we can
utilize the principles of primary healthcare as they have been developed
and applied by giants in the field. And how we can apply them in our own
lives. In our own work.
And so that we can each make a small contribution towards this great goal that
faces our world. That of achieving health for all sooner
rather than later. Thank you.
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