Better health care for children and families
Access to primary health care is critical for providing essential preventive care and support in Central Asia
Children’s health and survival rely on timely access to strong, resilient and inclusive health systems. In recent years large strides have been made in health outcomes, particularly for children, adolescents and women across Central Asia.
Innovations in primary health care across the region aim at bettering the quality of and access to health care for children and their families. Home visiting during early years of life, for example, helps with the early identification of developmental delays and provides families with care at the earliest opportunity, reducing inequities in the long run.
Access to primary health care is critical during emergencies. Underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic, preparedness, cooperation and operational management with a timely and vast response helps to enable continuous access to essential health services.
Home visiting supports timely care and referral, promotes healthy behavior and empowers communities by breaking down barriers in access to health care. This is especially critical for marginalized children and mothers, including children from minority groups, those living in poverty and rural and hard-to-reach areas. Programmes like these need to be fully integrated in primary health care through adequately financing and captured in health information systems.
Community engagement, participation, and continued education play an integral role in primary health care as a means to foster positive and measurable change.
Advancing primary health care in Central Asia
UNICEF/UN0681566/Babajanyan VII Photo
UNICEF/2023/AizhanBaiskakova
Natural disasters and other emergencies in Kazakhstan have heightened the vulnerability of families with children in crisis situations.
To address this, UNICEF is supporting the development of a universal progressive model of home-visiting services (UPMMHVS) for families with young children.
In this system, patronage nurses visit families, pregnant women and young children, focusing on high-risk groups that have specific medical or psychosocial needs.
UNICEF/UN0759524/Babajanyan VII Photo
Kyrgyzstan, with support from UNICEF and WHO, is working towards universal access to basic primary health care services for the entire population and an integrated people-centred health service delivery system.
A recent assessment to reduce the cost of health services for patients and make them more affordable for low‐income families indicates an investment of 0.33 per cent of the GDP over 20 years could generate economic benefits valued at 2.9 per cent of the GDP over the same period.
UNICEF/Tajikistan/2022/M. Ruziev
UNICEF Tajikistan works to provide high-quality health care services in the most rural and remote areas of the country. This includes delivering medical kits with essential items to small capacity health care centers in the most remote areas of the country.
Additionally, six-month intensive medical courses are offered to family doctors and nurses early in their careers to support higher quality maternal and child health care services.
UNICEF Turkmenistan
To support quality mother and child health services, Turkmenistan has introduced the first digital application for Mother and Child Home Visiting services. The new standards and applications are installed on tablet computers for health care professionals to support with prevention and counselling tools, which contribute to improved mother and child health and nutrition outcomes, as well as early detection of developmental difficulties.
UNICEF
The Universal Patronage System advances primary health in Uzbekistan.
A team of trainers train patronage nurses on best practice and the latest developments in health. The impact has been immense with more than 4 million mothers and children in Uzbekistan, especially the disadvantaged families, having improved access to services.
