COVID-19 Response - Lessons from Global and Country-level Adoption of CORE Group Home-Based Care Guidelines

Part of a weekly series of calls organised by CORE Group (see Related Summaries below), this COVID-19 Coordination Call focuses on the CORE Home-Based Care Reference Guide for COVID-19, which provides recommendations to nonprofits and community organisations that are designing programmes and materials in response to COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The presentations and discussion outline the development and purpose of the guidelines; two case studies show how the Guidelines are being used at local and global levels. Finally, the webinar shares experiences from Kenya, where community health workers (CHWs) are being trained to tackle both COVID-19 and gender-based violence (GBV) during their home visits.

Presentations included the following:

1. Presentation: Home-Based Care Reference Guide for COVID-19 By: Barbara Muffoletto, Program Manager of Curamericas Global, and Nicole Grable, Social and Behavior Change Consultant, COVID-19 Technical Response Unit, Mercy Corps
Summary: The two Home-Based Care (HBC) Task Force Co-Chairs provide an overview of the work of the CORE Group HBC Task Force (which consists of 15 member organisations), including how they developed CORE's Home-Based Care Reference Guide (hereafter, "the Guide") and where and how it is being used. In brief, the Guide was designed as a reference tool for the development of health promotion activities and materials. It is meant for organisations that coordinate community-based education and support for COVID-19 prevention and response and/or who work specifically with community health workers (CHWs) to reach households with one-on-one counselling and information. Topics include: How to support a person whose condition warrants home care; how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the home; and how to provide support to family members during COVID-19. An important consideration in the development and future trajectory of the Guide is that it remains applicable and up-to-date.

2. Presentation: COVID Care Group Module
By: Florence Amadi, Senior Technical Advisor Health and Nutrition, Food for the Hungry
Summary: This short presentation looks at how the Guide was used in the development of the COVID Care Group Module developed by Food for the Hungry in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, and Cambodia. The Module was designed to train field staff and community group health educators to pass on COVID-19-related information to communities and therefore incorporated information related to home-based care, treatment, and quarantine from the Reference Guide.

3. Presentation: Case #1 - Community and Facility-based Provider Training or Discharge Accompaniment
By: Rumbidzai Chimukangara, Health Promotion Manager and Risk Communication and Community Engagement Pillar, COVID-19 Response, Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care
Summary: This presentation describes the community-based response in Zimbabwe, which involves the training of COVID-19 response teams. The Guide was used to support the role of CHWs, who are responsible for disseminating information to communities and community leaders, linking communities to health facilities, and checking in on community members during quarantine. In particular, the Guide provided: information that was simplified, key messages that could be useful for community leaders, and information about physical distancing, and signs and symptoms that would necessitate referral.

4. Presentation: Case #2: Creating a Reference Application for Home-Based Care During COVID-19 - A Case Study from Dimagi and Medic Mobile's Frontline Workers Partnership
By: Helen Olsen, Impact Manager, Medic Mobile
Summary: Helen Olsen discusses the partnership between Dimagi and Medic Mobile Collaboration (both organisations working to equip frontline health workers (FHWs) with digital apps), which emerged due to the urgent need for a coordinated and quick response to COVID-19. The presentation looks at how they used the Guide as a blueprint for thinking through the design of an app for FHWs and home-based care. In particular, the Guide helped create an understanding of the workflow and needs of healthcare workers who provide care to people in their homes. The app, which combines care provision guidance and education, is described in some detail in this presentation.

5. Presentation: SGBV Programme Planning in Times of COVID-19
By: Anne Ngunjiri, Senior Technical Advisor, Gender-Based Violence and Violence Against Children (GBV/VAC), LVCT Health Kenya
Summary: As Anne Ngunjiri explains, COVID-19 has caused an increase in the number of cases of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), which is exacerbated by the disrupted support services for those experiencing violence in the home. She details how LVCT Health is addressing COVID-19 and GBV together. The response includes training and sensitising community health volunteers to be able to offer information related to COVID-19 during their home-visits, but at the same time also to be able to recognise the signs of SGBV and to be able to deal with cases when they come across them.

The call ended with a brief discussion and some insight into future planned calls, which include addressing continuity of care, especially for other infectious diseases such as malaria and HIV, and stigma.

On February 6 2020, CORE Group began a series of weekly calls (see Related Summaries, below) to convene members and partners to discuss their institutional positions around a range of topics related to COVID-19 in an effort to coordinate and support the global pandemic response. During each call, people who signed up for the discussion have the opportunity to ask questions and give input, and these discussions are also included in the recording. To receive updates and coordination call announcements, subscribe to CORE Group's One Health Interest Group listserv or email the listserv using: onehealth@lists.coregroup.org.