Community Participation in Health Services

The objective of this research is to characterize community participation in the health services located in the Idelfonso Vasquez parish, Maracaibo Municipality, Zulia, Venezuela. A descriptive, transversal, field investigation was carried out. Selection criteria were used to constitute the sample of the individuals to whom a structured questionnaire was applied. 75% of the persons affirmed knowing about the existence flaws that support community participation; 73% recognized the Communal Councils as the official organizations for participation in their communities; 38.3% expressed that the community had taken part in planning health programs; whereas 19.9% said that participation in their execution was sporadic. Regarding the social control of health services, about 0.8% of the informants expressed not knowing who carried it out. Important advances were observed in the recognition and use of the existing community participation mechanisms; nevertheless, deepening the exercise of social control is required, so that communities make use of this instrument of power, which will allow them to affect the reformulation of health policies and therefore, the management of these services.