How well do Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) — Malawi’s cadre of community health workers — deliver integrated services?

Abstract

HSAs are Malawi’s government-paid cadre of community health workers. Over the past decade, the HSAs’ portfolio of interventions has expanded in number and complexity to include maternal, newborn, and childhealth (MNCH) and family planning (FP).However, HSAs operate in an environment in which these community-based interventions are often implemented in a vertical and fragmented manner, resulting in gaps in the continuum of care and missed opportunities for integrated service delivery.