Self-management skills may be key to helping Community Health Workers cope amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Community Health Workers are a key frontline cadre in the Primary Health Care approach to patient-centred care and are well recognised as the link between the communities and the formal health sector. From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this cadre’s duties became more critical as they had to assist with COVID-19 screening in communities and to co-ordinate queries around medication delivery in addition to their regular duties. This chapter explores and describes how Community Health Workers coped during the pandemic and whether the skills learnt through a self-management training programme they had attended prior to the COVID-19 outbreak assisted them in managing themselves and others during the pandemic. A qualitative exploratory design using mobile instant-messaging interviews was used to explore and describe the coping methods employed by Community Health Workers and the value of self-management knowledge and skills in their personal and professional capacity during COVID-19. Five themes emerged, namely spirituality, communities of practice, self-care, taking action, and self-efficacy. Self-management skills proved very valuable in empowering Community Health Workers to cope during the epidemic and facilitated their professional and personal resourcefulness and resilience. This strategy should be considered formally as Community Health Workers sustain their contribution to COVID-19 responses, because the effort directed at improving their own-self-care will not only allow them to be maximally available for their job demands, but should also lead to them transferring these skills to the communities and colleagues they engage with daily. This may ultimately lead to a wider improvement of overall health status.