Evaluating the Impact and Efficacy of a Community Health Program in Argentina
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primary health care
community health
community health worker
argentina
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Abstract
Despite being free for everybody who steps foot on Argentine soil, the public health care system in Argentina has yet to reach effective universal coverage, in which barriers to access and quality are dismantled. San Antonio de Areco, a rural municipality on the outskirts of the Buenos Aires province populated by about 23,000 people, implemented a Municipal Territorial Health Program (PMTS) in 2021. This program involves the expansion of community health centers and implementation of community health workers in neighborhoods demonstrating the most need, with plans to eventually cover the entire municipality. This study employs ethnographic methods to understand how this program uses the tenets of primary health care to attempt effective universal health coverage. In doing so, I also aim to show how the PMTS has changed the relationship between the community and the healthcare system by expanding the definition of what is considered “care” to include a more comprehensive and relational model. While the PMTS may be considered a success, this project also identifies patterns in gendered and undervalued labor conditions for community health workers. These labor practices seem to stem from the very structural deficiencies in the Argentine healthcare system that also keep the nation from reaching effective universal coverage. Grounded in historical, anthropological and sociological disciplines, this project employs non-confidential document analysis, interviews, and focus groups to assess this program in relation to its surrounding community. The subjects of the research include hospital personnel, community health workers, program directors, community health center workers, and community members themselves.