The cornerstone of building care

The World Care Council has been a global leader in driving forward a Rights and Responsibilities approach to health, advocating that people suffering from infectious diseases have specific universal rights to quality care, and have an individual responsibility to prevent the spread of illness to others. Health providers, both public and private, have the responsibility to provide consumers with the highest possible quality of care, and the right to have the appropriate tools to do so.

The methodology of joining the human right to life through access to healthcare with the individual duty to act responsibly in face of a public health threat is one that allows people with TB, HIV and other communicable diseases to forge partnerships with care providers and programs. This relationship is a mutually beneficial one - people in need can work with providers to access better care and providers can work with patients to better succeed in managing the pandemics that impact on the populations they serve.

As both providers and people with the diseases need to know their rights and responsibilities, the World Care Council has developed innovative tools to reach a broad based agreement on what these are. Using its 'Outreach for Input' system of consultation, the WCC has produced two editions (2006 and 2009) of the Patients' Charter for Tuberculosis Care (PCTC) with the inputs of over one thousand people who have direct experience of the disease from four continents. The PCTC has been incorporated into the Strategies of the WHO and most of of the governments of high burdened countries, and is the tandem document to the International Standards for Tuberculosis Care. These two guidelines form the basis of the Patient Centered Care approach to TB treatment and prevention, and serve as levers for change from decades of poor programmatic 'TB Control' to quality TB Care, a major step forward for both people with the disease and the communities devastated by them.

The World Care Council is now piloting the development of a Charter of Rights and Responsibilities for PLHIV, and is presently seeking contributions from People Living with HIV for the multiple drafts of this Charter. To participate, visit 'Write Your Rights!'. As with the PCTC, the PLHIV Charter will undergo many months of Outreach for Input to achieve a broad based stakeholding in the document, and these stakeholders and the WCC will then advocate for its adoption on International and national levels. This advocacy is an integral part of the World Care Council's methodology for social mobilization, bringing people with the diseases together with health professionals to scale-up services and increase access to quality care.

The drive for Rights and Responsibilities is a core activity for the World Care Council, and has shown itself to be an effective tool for raising the standards of care on the ground. As it is powered by people with the diseases, it embodies the principles of greater and more meaningful involvement of TB Patients and PLHIV (GIPT and GIPA).

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