The Public Health Mentorship Programme: An Intervention Model for Scaling Up and Strengthening Service Delivery in Low Resource and Hard-to-Reach Settings

Background: The Clinical Mentorship Programme (CMP) is an organized form of PHM programme, which was deployed as a pioneer public health intervention and modelled to support existing interventions and other ongoing strategies to catalyze better outcomes in the HIV Control Programme in Rivers State, Nigeria. CMP as a form of PHM is untested mainly in Nigeria. It is a structured intervention to complement the effort at bridging the gap of huge unmet needs in HIV service delivery in a low-resource setting, marked by a difficult terrain and security challenges. The rationale was to catalyze quality improvement in targeted indicators using locally tested initiatives, build the capacity of local teams, promote a culture of problem-solving attitude at the site level and strengthen team effort between the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria, Government Agencies and beneficiary community.

Methodology: The CMP was implemented in the State HIV control Programme from about July 2019. The SCMs were chosen as medical doctors and trained to have the requisite knowledge to build staff and improve the quality of the HIV control programme.

Results: Two years after the introduction of the CMP, the capacity of teams was successfully established in a team command structure, which led to improvement in key performance programme indicators.

Conclusion: The CMP accelerated and supported the successful reduction in unmet treatment needs in the Rivers State HIV Control Programme within two years of its implementation. It is further recommended to be adapted in other public health programmes as a form of Public Health Mentorship to optimize service delivery in areas challenged by the high unmet need.