Abstract
Abstract
This study is an explorative investigation of healthcare in a small rural village in Kwazulu-Natal focusing on the situation for healthcare workers providing treatment, care and support to HIV positive people. The theory of social capital has been used to investigate community participation, cooperation in the community and cooperation between the community and the government. Seven organizations were interviewed in semi-structured interviews and data was analyzed using thematic analyses. The results showed a high level of community participation and use of volunteers and informal groups to provide treatment, care and support. Cooperation and “bridging” between organizations was reported as high and was found to increase the quality of healthcare. Factors found to reduce cooperation and “bridging” in the village were lack of coordination and lack of human and material resources. Cooperation between the community and the government was mentioned to be low or non-existent. The study concludes that the level of community participation and “bridging” in the community is increasing social capital while the low level of cooperation and "linking" between community and government is reducing social capital. The study highlights the use of interventions that both facilitate “bridging” and “linking” to support community participation and coordination of healthcare in the village. Interventions to empower and educate healthcare workers in the village to treat patients closer to their homes are recommended.