Despite the existence of government guidelines, there are many challenges to accessing postnatal and other health checks for children which limits the early detection of disabilities. 53 per cent of children aged 24–59 months are not developmentally on track in terms of health, learning, and psychosocial wellbeing (TDHIS-MIS, 2022). Early identification of disability is critical to provide timely interventions that prevent delays in child development and inclusive participation in school and community life.
This project focuses on understanding the existing systems for early detection of disability, or risk of disability, in children under five, with a particular focus on the primary health care and community health worker systems. The goal is to:
- Generate evidence on current early detection practices
- Map referral and support mechanisms
- Identify system strengths and weaknesses to guide future scale-up and service improvement
The project aims to inform policy, system design, and scale-up efforts to strengthen Tanzania’s early disability detection and support systems.
Research Questions
- How are primary health care and community health worker systems currently structured to detect disabilities in young children?
- What policies or operational factors enable or constrain effective early detection by primary health care and community health workers?
- What are the key referral and support mechanisms for children identified with or at risk of disabilities?
- How well do these systems cover communities and reach children on time? And how accurate is the detection?
Research Methods
- Consultative and policy uptake workshops with stakeholders and key policy makers
- System mapping of stakeholders
- Qualitative data collection with stakeholder, healthcare workers and community respondents
- Document and policy review