‘Health is more than the absence of disease. It is at the heart of human wellbeing.’

This is how Prof Tessa Marcus starts her recently published book: COPC – A Practical Guide. This book was written to support the training of Community Health Workers doing community oriented primary care; but also to support anyone who is engaged in health and care.

Community oriented primary care – COPC, for short – is a health care approach which emphasises cooperation between people, services and systems, and which focuses on the family in the community first. It forms part of the reengineering of primary care and the National Health Insurance.

Because of this, COPC – A Practical Guide is an important resource to consult. It covers topics such as the principles of COPC; the capability approach to learning and work-i-learn; the most common health conditions; and the practice of COPC. COPC – A Practical Guide is an extensively expanded revision of A Practical Guide to Doing Community Oriented Primary Care.

Everyone interested in reading COPC – A Practical Guide can download the book from Research Gate – follow this link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327495860_COPC-_A_Practical_Guide

As Prof Marcus herself stated:

‘The authors of health are ordinary women, men and children and the teams of professional and health care workers, learners, educators and managers who support and practically make health a daily reality. The best I can hope is that this guide will be of use to them.’

Thank you, Prof!