Bringing people together in support of services is essential to tuberculosis control

Effective medications have a long and successful record of curing individual cases of tuberculosis (TB). But to manage the disease at community and national levels, interventions that address social, political, informational needs are also crucial.

Sustaining financial resources for TB control requires advocating for funding on political and development agendas. Ensuring that people know about TB services and how to access them means communicating effectively. Raising awareness and demand for programs, assisting in the delivery of services, and ensuring that existing programs continue to operate requires mobilizing a wide group of stakeholders. Together, interventions that aim to achieve these goals are called advocacy, communication, and social mobilization (ACSM).

Addressing the root causes of disease

With funding from the United States Agency for International Development, PATH supports community leaders and government officials in designing, implementing, and evaluating activities that involve communities in efforts to fight TB. The idea is to improve conditions: fewer people infected with TB, more of those who are sick successfully diagnosed and treated, and fewer dying from TB.

To help communities reach these goals, we’ve developed an innovative training curriculum that helps people move beyond the well-known methods of preventing and treating TB disease—diagnostic tests, drugs, and vaccines—to address the social and political roots of the disease. We do this by advocating for resources and policies that support TB control, educating the public about TB and its cure, and actively engaging many segments of society in the fight to stop TB.

The agenda for the training is intensive and highly participatory, with participants working in small groups, holding plenary discussions, and taking part in other activities that encourage them to share their knowledge and experiences as well as provide peer feedback. The process used throughout the workshops helps deepen participants' common understanding of ACSM principles and increases participants' confidence in their ACSM skills and knowledge.

End result: an action plan

Participants who use our training curriculum learn the basics of ACSM. Then, they develop action plans for their own communities and countries. We have conducted training in every region of the world.

To encourage collaboration across national borders, we conduct regional ACSM training workshops. At regional workshops, TB specialists, community activists and health care providers from different countries share their experiences and develop innovative solutions.

For many participants, ACSM is a relatively new concept. By the end of the training, however, many participants understand ACSM activities are critical for improving TB outcomes in their countries. Participants learn the importance of linking ACSM interventions with national TB control objectives, and plan for and implement ACSM in their daily work.

As a result of regional workshops, several countries have developed plans to incorporate ACSM services in their national TB control strategies.  In addition, health care officials have conducted workshops in their own countries, building the knowledge and ability of their team members to teach ACSM skills and creating the potential for a sustainable effort.

Photo: PATH/Patrick McKern.