Age-friendly Primary Health Care Centres Toolkit - World Health ...

AGE-FRIENDLY PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CENTRES TOOLKITThe tools were then tested by the five countries that participated in the project: Brazil,Costa Rica, Jamaica, Singapore and Turkey. Their recommendations were used tomodify the tools. Several rounds of testing and modifications were implemented.The toolkit includes flowcharts describing steps to follow for each tool; they will allowcountries to include specific actions particular to their situation.Throughout the toolkit, countries are encouraged to use the guidelines of their ownnational protocols. As an example, two Jamaican guidelines are included:1. the management guidelines of hypertension, and2. the management guidelines of diabetesThe first of these guidelines was adapted from the WHO/ISH Hypertension guidelines(WHO 1999, 2003).http://www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/guidelines/hypertension/en/The guidelines for diabetes were written by the Caribbean Health Research Council(CHRC) with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) collaboration. They areaimed at producing an unified, evidence-based approach to the management of diabetesin the Caribbean. Both are included as examples of adopting WHO guidelines.The draft tools were circulated among participants of the project in 2005 and discussedat two meetings. Further recommendations from these meetings lead to revisions. Thetools were then pre-tested in primary health care centres in the five participatingcountries. The findings were discussed at a third meeting and again tested in the clinicsand further amended. During the testing period, Brazil and Costa Rica translated thetools of the toolkit into Portuguese and Spanish respectively and adapted the materialaccording to their country specific situation.The toolkit is the result of five years of collaborative work (meetings, discussions andfieldwork) between ALC, primary health care technical experts, and countries.Review-by dateIt is anticipated that the recommendations in this toolkit will remain valid until June 2011.The Ageing and Life Course Programme at WHO headquarters in Geneva will beresponsible for initiating a review of this guideline at that time.Enjoy – together we can work towards the Age-friendly PHC centre thatolder people need and deserve!9