Strengthening Health Cadres' Capacity through a Holistic Care Program for Community-Based Support of Patients with Chronic Diseases in Keramat Village, Martapura

Chronic diseases require continuous community-based support that addresses patients’ biological, psychological, social, spiritual, and cultural needs. However, health cadres may have limited capacity to provide comprehensive assistance beyond physical health monitoring. This community service program aimed to strengthen health cadres’ capacity to apply a Holistic Care approach in supporting patients with chronic diseases and their families in Keramat Village, Martapura, South Kalimantan. The program involved 10 health cadres and 24 patients with chronic diseases and their families and was implemented through community empowerment, Holistic Care education, interactive training, case simulation, pocketbook-based guidance, digital documentation, and one-month home-based mentoring. Cadres’ knowledge was evaluated using a one-group pre-test–post-test design and analyzed descriptively. All cadres demonstrated increased post-test scores, with pre-test scores ranging from 35-80 and post-test scores from 75-100. Individual score increases ranged from 5 to 40 points, with a mean absolute increase of 21.2 points. The evaluation demonstrated an increase in health cadres’ knowledge following the program. However, the program did not assess cadres’ practical competency or patients’ quality of life using validated measures. The program supports continued cadre training, supervision, referral mechanisms, and direct evaluation of patient outcomes in future implementation.