SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union (PIA) – A total of 640 barangay health workers (BHWs) from three Department of Health (DOH) hospitals in the Ilocos Region attended an interpersonal communication and counseling training in preparation for the Periodic Intensification of Routine Immunization (PIR) program of the department for 2024.
The Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center in Batac, Ilocos Norte; the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center in San Fernando City, La Union; and the Region 1 Medical Center in Dagupan City, Pangasinan handled the training for BHWs in various provinces.
In a statement on Tuesday, DOH Ilocos Regional Director Paula Paz Sydiongo said that the activity is intended to provide communication skills to the BHWs as health communicators and to enhance their demand generation campaign in their respective communities.
“Interpersonal communication and counseling training is an effective way to improve and ensure service delivery. And it is important that our BHWs know of various communication strategies to influence and empower individuals in the communities to make healthier choices,” she stated.
“That is why we have to make our BHWs efficient communicators because the ultimate goal of this training is to use communication strategically to improve the health and well-being of individuals,” Sydiongco added.
Two hundred BHWs were trained in La Union, 280 in Ilocos Norte and 160 in Pangasinan.
The training consists of various lectures and workshops involving strategies in interpersonal communications, identifying problems and concerns in the community, and addressing various health situations through proper interaction and counseling methods.
The BHWs who have undergone training will facilitate demand-generation activities in improving vaccination coverage particularly in addressing community concerns and debunking misconceptions regarding vaccines.
Last year, the DOH in the Ilocos Region also conducted capacity-building activities for BHWs across the region to prepare them for their new role as health education and promotion officers (HEPOs) on the ground.
They were equipped on how they would develop activities and programs for the implementation of the seven priority areas defined in DOH’s Health Promotion Framework Strategy.
These seven priority areas include nutrition and physical activity, environmental health, immunization, substance use, mental health, sexual and reproductive health, and violence and injury prevention at the community level. (JCR/AMB/PIA Region 1)
