HCBC offers services to people with:

• Physical impairment.
• Medication adherence support and counselling to people with chronic diseases including TB and HIV/AIDS.

Medication adherence support and health promotion removes unnecessary hospital/clinic visits and admissions by reducing disease and deaths caused by chronic illness.

• Who Provides Home Community-Based Care?
• Training for Community Care Workers (CCWs)

HCBC services in the Western Cape are provided by non-profit organisations (NPOs), which are tendered for and subsidised by the provincial government. Patients who need ongoing care at home upon discharge from hospital are referred to a health facility at primary healthcare level in the area in which they live.

The dedicated Home Community-Based Services Coordinator at the clinic or primary healthcare centre refers the patient to the NPO partner responsible for HCBC services in the area. The NPO co-coordinator (nursing sister) will assess the needs of the individual in their home and develop a care plan for them. The sister then assigns a community care worker (CCW) to the individual.

The caregiver will render the service according to the instruction on the care plan and the sister will visit the individual to make sure that the plan is being carried through.

HCBC is not a 24-hour service and does not replace the family as the primary caregiver. It is only meant to be a complementary and supportive service to prevent "burn-out" for family caregivers who are forced to care for sick relatives.

TRAINING FOR COMMUNITY CARE WORKERS

Community care workers have to complete a South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) home-based care course accredited by Ancillary Health Care Qualification; this is facilitated and funded by the Department of Health. Continuous, in-service training is provided by the Department of Health to ensure competence.

• Contact details for all community-based coodinators in different regions