Education and health services in Papua

Education and health services in Papua

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said maternal and child health services for indigenous Papuans, especially in West Papua Province, require increased availability and access to skilled services and resources as well as health education for local residents.

“Maternal and child health services in this province face various obstacles and challenges from both service providers and service users,” said Widayatun, a researcher at LIPI Center for Population Research in the virtual launching event “Books on Challenges and Solutions for Papua Land from a Population Side”, Jakarta, Thursday.

Maternal and child health is a very important benchmark for the creation of a quality next generation.

In the event, Widayatun explained about one of the three books launched by LIPI, entitled Maternal and Child Health of Indigenous Papuans: Between Service Availability and Socio-Cultural Challenges

Two other books are Education as a Way of Light: Building Education that is Responsive to the Geographical, Demographic, Social, and Cultural Conditions of the Indigenous Papuans; and Indigenous Papuans: Social Demographic Conditions and Their Changes.

Widayatun said that the low utilization of health services is influenced by the limitations and structural challenges of service providers such as the health office, community health centers (puskesmas), auxiliary puskesmas (pustu) and village maternity centers (polindes), as well as the socio-cultural challenges of utilizing maternal and child health services by users of maternal and child health services for indigenous Papuans.

According to Widayatun, the factors that influence the utilization of health services in the region are quite complex, which on the upstream side are related to socio-cultural determinants that affect health services, while on the downstream side are related to the availability and access to basic health services and referrals.

Public awareness and education about health is important to increase public understanding and utilization of health services, such as the importance of conducting prenatal care.

Widayatun said the need to increase physical and infrastructure development in overcoming the problem of limited facilities and infrastructure.

The problem of limited facilities and infrastructure includes inadequate road infrastructure and limited transportation facilities, the availability of limited service support facilities such as electricity, water and communication facilities, which causes disruption of services such as health equipment operated with electricity being constrained.

Then, there are problems related to limited housing for health workers, not yet optimal guarantees against security and comfort problems for health workers, shortages of health workers at the puskesmas, pustu and polindes levels.

Difficult geographic conditions such as hills and mountains pose a challenge in itself so that health services for people living in the interior are not optimal and require high costs.

Widayatun said that various limitations and challenges have been identified for a long time and are still happening.

Therefore, it is necessary to solve problems and challenges from upstream to downstream to increase the utilization of health services in West Papua Province. The settlement was carried out comprehensively and completely by involving all stakeholders such as the central government, local governments, health offices, community leaders, academics, and involving non-governmental organizations and professional organizations.

Education and health services in Papua