Engaging Communities to Improve Healthcare for Non-communicable Diseases: Notes from the Field in Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

In rural communities in low-and middle-income countries like Nigeria, healthcare is a patchwork of services. Only a small portion of the healthcare provision in Nigeria comes from a unified health system. Therefore, remote and rural communities receive minimal preventive health services. Medical missions can play a critical role in closing gaps in care and improving healthcare access for vulnerable populations. However, long-term sustainability is difficult to achieve without deliberate community engagement from planning to evaluation. In this manuscript, the authors describe a collaborative, community-engaged global health service project in rural southeastern Nigeria that included medical missions and provided continuous care of non-communicable diseases post-mission for sustained impact. The authors conclude with insights gained regarding the challenges of engaging communities at a distance through translational collaboration as well as implications for conducting such work.