Collaborative cOMMUNIty Care for Metastatic breAsT cancEr Patients in inDonesia (Communicated)

Most mBC patients in Indonesia stay at home until they have heavy physical symptoms and need hospitalizations. In this country, even in hospitalization, support from the family caregivers is greatly needed [1]. Family caregivers and the community have a significant role for patients with mBC.

In Indonesia, the support system from local neighbours and community has been implemented for some decades through the involvement of cadres. Health cadres are people from the village who are appointed by their community to train and enhance the community participation in order to empower community health in Indonesia [2]. Most of them are housewives who have enough capability (mentally and physically) to learn, have enough time, and willing to provide support for their community. This role is informal and voluntary-based [3].

-Community support through the existence of cadre in Indonesia- Cadres in Indonesia are initiated by community health services (hereafter Pusat Kesehatan Masyarakat/Puskesmas) around the area. The selection and development of cadres involve the lowest level of local government in the area. Cadres need to have some essential characteristics to undertake their role. They should have empathy as well as good communication skills since one of their tasks is to deliver important health information and message to the community. They need to be able to connect with the community to develop a mutual understanding and be accepted [4]. Funding received from national and local government is allocated for cadres to subsidize the transportation and logistics expenses, but this does not cover the monthly wages [2].

Cadres play a fundamental role in tackling health care problems especially those that are related to psychosocial and cultural factors since they have enough information and knowledge about people and situations in their area. Health care professionals who work in Puskesmas usually cooperate with cadres to gather information related to health conditions in the area or to support local activities. Several roles of cadre have been identified. First, health cadres are responsible for educating and motivating patients and their family to access health care system. They are responsible for assisting patients to access health care facilities for early diagnosis or treatment. On a daily basis, cadres are expected to monitor patients' condition as well as do home visit. At last, it is expected that cadres are able to advocate for patients and their family in the relation to health care professionals [5, 6].

Cadres are initiated and developed by Puskesmas and working closely with integrated health service posts (hereafter Posyandu). Posyandu is a local health unit, under the coordination of Puskesmas, that aims to provide care for baby and infant. Their activities include baby weighting, providing vitamin and enhancing the nutritional status of babies and infants. During Posyandu, health care teams from Puskesmas and cadres are working together. To be able to be classified as active, a Posyandu needs to have at least five health cadres [2]. Currently, there are around 395.495 health cadres in Indonesia.

-Challenges of cadre in Indonesia- In Indonesia, some challenges faced by cadres have been identified. The first is that the role of cadres in Indonesia is still limited. Mostly, their role is merely to provide care for infants and children. Since the number of mBC patients who stay at home is high, health cadres are frequently requested to provide care for this specific group. There have been several initiatives in Indonesia focused on expanding cadres' roles; however, most of the initiatives are focusing on screening and early detection of cancer [7-9]. Until now, there is no single adequate intervention in Indonesia to prepare cadres in Indonesia to support mBC patients and their family caregivers.

The second issue is that although cadres have some connections with Puskesmas, the breadth and depth of the connections are still limited and have an unclear structure. There is a need to open communication channels so that cadres are able to connect with health care professionals from Puskesmas and their role can be recognized by local health authorities. When needed, cadres would be better positioned to request for help or provide important information to Puskesmas in regards to mBC patients problems and needs.

Given the important role of cadres, the COMMUNICATED project aims to empower local cadres to provide care for metastatic breast cancer (mBC) patients in in Indonesia.