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Better Care for NCDs Initiative

Strengthening the integration of NCDs into Primary Health Care represents a key milestone in a country’s health system response to the Sustainable Development Agenda, with the aim of leaving no one behind.

Moving forward with Better Care for Noncommunicable Diseases is more important than ever

Millions of people across the Americas live with conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma and cancer and mental health disorders. These remain the leading causes of death, disability, and preventable suffering in the region, and require responses that are continuous, accessible, and reliable from the first level of care.

The Better Care for Noncommunicable Diseases Initiative promotes a shift that goes beyond treatment of NCDs: it supports prevention, risk factor control, and active health promotion within communities. It strengthens local teams, improves care coordination, and ensures that essential services reach those who need them most, without fragmentation or delays.

This website provides updated information on the Initiative's progress, technical resources, training tools, country data, and concrete examples of implementation. All content is focused on strengthening responses that increase security for individuals and communities, building lasting capacities to act better today and be better prepared for tomorrow.

Objectives:

1.- To strengthen the capacity of health authorities to plan and implement comprehensive NCD services in primary health care.

2.- To increase the capacity of primary health care services to deliver comprehensive quality NCD screening, diagnosis, treatment and continuous follow-up care, including referral and counter-referral services.

3.- To strengthen data collection and monitoring of NCD diagnosis, treatment, and care outcomes, for people with NCDs.

What are the recommended NCDs services in primary care settings?

NCD services in primary care include a range of essential services from health promotion to prevention, screening, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care. The WHO package of essential noncommunicable diseases intervention (WHO PEN), which includes the HEARTS package for hypertension control, provides a framework for a minimum set of interventions to address the main NCDs in primary care. This PAHO initiative will build on and expand country´s current efforts to integrate NCDs into PHC, including HEARTS.

The interventions are for the detection, diagnosis, treatment, and care of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, asthma and other chronic respiratory diseases, and cancer, healthy lifestyle counseling, self-care, and palliative care. They will be scaled up at the primary health care level. As most persons known to have an NCD frequently have more than one chronic condition, it is required a multidisciplinary approach to their diagnosis and management.