title: Primary Health Care: Expectations and Tasks for Public Health in Trinidad and Tobago.
abstract: The government of Trinidad and Tobago considers that the enjoyment of the highest attainable level of health is a basic right of every citizen and has a goal to achieve health for all by 2020. Thus it lays emphasis on caring and assures standards of excellence to promote, protect and improve the health status of the people of Trinidad and Tobago. To achieve these goals it is very important to increase curative services as well as preventive services in the country. In view of this situation there is a need to overcome the challenges the public health by involving community and individuals and self-reliance to achieve Health for all at 2020. Community participation is one of the domains of community capacity building in a small island country. It is one of the mechanisms to empower people to take part in community development. In this paper, the nature, the dimensions of community participation, and its role and scope in implementation of different components of primary health care have been described. The health services in public and remedial care have been discussed. The article highlights some important milestone achievements in the health sector in Trinidad.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago. Emmanuel.JanaganJohnson@sta.uwi.edu.
authors.forename: Emmanuel Janagan
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Department of Pre-Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
mesh_terms: D003256:Community Participation; D003906:Developing Countries; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011635:Public Health Administration; D014300:Trinidad and Tobago
keywords: Community based services; Community participation; Health indicators; Primary health care; Tasks