Timor-Leste Health Care Seeking Behaviour Study - Secretaria de ...

5.4.4 Recommendations for development partners• Support community and Ministry of Health initiatives to enhance respect and responsivenessto communities, and to improve access, equity and quality of services.• Encourage innovation and evaluation of interventions to enhance health literacy andcommunity participation and engagement in health issues.• Provide support to MOH in acting on the recommendations above.5.5 Further researchAdditional research is warranted in several areas which have been identified but not fully exploredhere. A number of provider groups deserve additional attention and study. These include the CubanMedical Brigade which was minimally covered here; TBAs and other traditional providers; NGOservices and private sector providers, in particular general practitioners and pharmacists whooperate primarily in urban centres. The ready availability of a wide range of health care providers inthese centres is likely to influence both identification and response to health care needs. Access toskilled health care workers will change substantially when the first cohort of Cuba-trained Timoreseprofessionals begin to return home to practice in 2009.Timor-Leste is a country with large and growing populations of children and young people. Theirviews on the acceptability of health services are important, as are their suggestions for youthengagement in service development and policy. Innovative approaches to youth-centred input tohealth promotion and to enhancing understanding of the determinants of health, the importance ofeffective prevention, and the need for early intervention, deserve attention.5.6 Other productsThe HCSBS has developed a number of resources alongside the primary research tools and projectreports. Two deserve particular attention: a glossary of health care terms in Tetum, and theidentification of material which may be of value to those responsible for training health careworkers.The glossary has emerged from in-depth interviews with service users and providers, and focusgroup discussions with a large number of informants. Terms describing health conditions, traditionalhealth care providers, and remedies and solutions to health care problems, have been identified andcoded. These are focused primarily on three areas (diarrhoea, child-birth, and child-spacing) but arenot limited to these. Building this resource for Timorese and expatriate (malae) health providers isof potential value in improving understanding and communication with service users. The HCSBSteam hope that a mechanism can be developed to build up this glossary by combining it with otherearlier documentation, and enhancing it over time.The HCSBS team, department heads and district health teams also identified a number of scenariosthat could form the basis for discussion and training by health care workers, MOH department headsand district health teams. Some examples have been highlighted in the text and appendices of thisreport. These vignettes can be further built up to stimulate and elicit debate around the implicationsfor policy and practice, and in so doing can play a part in enhancing the appreciation andresponsiveness of providers to the health concerns of the community.Timor-Leste Health Care Seeking Behaviour Study | 200958