The Circle of Care is a comprehensive model that demonstrates how social and behavior change (SBC) may be utilized before, during, and after treatments across the healthcare ecosystem to enhance health outcomes. The approach emphasizes the interaction across services, including the use of SBC to encourage clients to utilize services, improve customer communication, and increase compliance and upkeep (Alqassim et al., 2022). It takes into account societal and cultural conventions that have an impact on how services are used and provided, the actual setting in which services are provided, and the interaction between a customer and a supplier. The SBC practitioners’ activities aim to develop a robust and supportive environment for behavior centered on pursuing health improvements. The SBC practices can significantly contribute to of increasing the patients’ awareness and healthcare-related education level.
The objective of the Before Stage is to attract potential customers’ attention, encourage them to use the services, and establish an atmosphere that facilitates or promotes service use. SBC programs may aid in this stage by fostering the demands of customers, establishing a favorable environment, and establishing norms that encourage health-seeking. The term “During stage” describes the phase of the continuum during which clients are continuously utilizing services, typically in an institutional setting but sometimes through community and mobile programs. During this phase, SBC activities may be utilized to improve provided, empower patients, and foster confidence between the public and healthcare professionals. In the After Stage, clients frequently have to decide whether to start a new, appropriate habit or develop an existing one, such as therapy, daily medication, or a change in food. SBC activities may be employed at this point to improve follow-up, assist behavioral maintenance, and strengthen connections with patients and the healthcare system.
Peer education initiatives enlist volunteers to educate and encourage their peers to adopt healthier habits in order to increase health in their communities. This direction can continue to provide support to other members of the public, assist them in navigating diagnosis and services, and inform people about health concerns and habits that may have an influence on their health. Peer educators, for instance, can enhance HIV outcomes by raising HIV awareness and encouraging protective practices among their peers to lower HIV transmission. The strategies for such an education are related to higher illness-prevention measures, including HIV awareness, mindful condom usage, and decreased equipment sharing among injectable drug users.
By determining the key contributors in a community and developing products that interact with these key stakeholders, implementers may indirectly change the behavior of their audience by influencing how and to whom customers talk about health. For instance, in order to promote maternal health, SBC clinicians may create a community-based project to inform grandmothers or mothers-in-law through already established community organizations and offer them advice on how to motivate women in their households to seek out maternity health care. Additionally, influencers’ endorsements of a habit or their favorable experiences with a health service may be gathered and promoted by programs.
The Circle of Care model, including the SBC-focused changes, focuses on increasing the patients’ general awareness and education level through establishing contact between the customer and supplier. The primary focus is to create an adaptive environment for the customers to encourage health-seeking. In order to do so, many concepts such as peer education are used. Most of the approaches are centered on developing positive health-improving habits in patients’ cognition through particular behavior patterns.
References
Alqassim, M. Y., Kresnye, K. C., Siek, K. A., Lee, J., & Wolters, M. K. (2022). The miscarriage circle of care: towards leveraging online spaces for social support. BMC Women’s Health, 22(1), 1-19. Web.
Austin, T., Chreim, S., & Grudniewicz, A. (2020). Examining health care providers’ and middle-level managers’ readiness for change: a qualitative study. BMC health services research, 20(1), 1-14. Web.