The WITS Health HUBB (Help Understand Behave Become)
NOW IN YEAR TWO On the 1st of October 2020, twenty NEET youth from Soweto started the Health Advocate programme and their training to become Health Promotion Officers (NQF 3) within their community. These advocates visited homes providing basic health checks, and worked alongside the City of J ohannesburg health promotion officers and primary care clinic staff through the COVID-19 pandemic. By end of 2021, 70% of these young people had ongoing employment. A survey of community members (n=122) showed how much such services are needed: Over 93% of households said – – they had not received similar home health checks before – the advocates seemed very knowledgeable and answered their questions well with easy to understand information – they would be likely or very likely to request this service again at home if it were available.
Community members experienced an average 37% improvement in how they felt about their health after the visit. When asked to estimate the value of the home visit to them in local currency, the median reported value was R68 (significantly higher for men at R76). Four of the 2020 cohort have also joined the Wits Health Hubb core team and are helping to expand the teams’ capacity. During 2021, the team also expanded to employ a professional nurse part-time specializing in palliative care.
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