Providing quality, stigma-free services is essential to equitable health care for all and achieving global HIV goals and broader Sustainable Development Goals related to health. Every person has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Countries have a legal obliga...tion to develop and implement legislation and policies that guarantee universal access to quality health services and address the root causes of health disparities, including poverty, stigma and discrimination.
The health sector is uniquely placed to lead in addressing inequity, assuring safe personcentred care for everyone and improving social determinants of health by overcoming taboos and discriminatory or stigmatizing behaviours associated with HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Improving health care quality and reducing stigma work together to enhance health outcomes for people living with HIV. Together, they make health care services more accessible, trustworthy and supportive. This encourages early diagnosis, consistent treatment and improved mental well-being. Thus, people living with HIV are more likely to engage with and benefit from health care services, leading to improved overall health.
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This Curriculum Guide accompanies the Refugee and Migrant Health: Global Competency Standards for Health Workers and the Knowledge Guide to support the operationalization of the Standards. The Curriculum Guide provides guidance for institutions, health organizations and individuals engaged in the ed...ucation and training of health practitioners and health administrators to support incorporation of the knowledge, skills and attitudes set out in the Knowledge Guide into curricula and for assessment of the achievement of the relevant learning outcomes and Competency Standards.
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Evaluating the Return on Investment of Scaling Up Treatment for Depression, Anxiety, and Psychosis
Childhood obesity is a major public health problem globally, which could undermine progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Prevention is recognized as the most efficient means of curbing the epidemic; however, given the scale of the problem and the many children who need profes...sional support due to the severity of the disease and/or obesity-related complications, health systems all over Europe must take steps to develop obesity management systems. The aim of this project was to assess the response of health care delivery systems in 19 countries in the WHO European Region to the childhood obesity epidemic.
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The WHO Guidance on community mental health services: Promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches document is part of the WHO Guidance and technical packages on community mental health services set of publications. It provides a detailed description of person-centred and human rights-based ...approaches in mental health, and summary examples of good practice services around the world. It describes the linkages needed with housing, education, employment and social protection sectors, and presents examples of integrated regional and national networks of community-based mental health services. Specific recommendations and action steps are presented for developing community mental health services that respect human rights and focus on recovery. This comprehensive document is accompanied by a set of seven technical packages focused on specific categories of mental health services and guidance for setting up new services.
The WHO Guidance on community mental health services: Promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches is a set of publications that provides information and support to all stakeholders who wish to develop or transform their mental health system and services to align with international human rights standards including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
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This European compendium was produced to provide operational examples of the new nursing and midwifery roles and new service delivery models currently being employed across the Region. The case studies directly relate to the priority areas in Health 2020 and exemplify the types of activities needed ...to fully implement the objectives within the Strategic Directions framework.
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The combined effects from ambient (outdoor) air pollution and indoor (household, in particular) air pollution cause approximately 7 million premature deaths every year, largely as a result of increased mortality from stroke, IHD, COPD, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections (1). Air pollution ...can occur in both the outdoor and indoor environments. Cook-stoves in homes, motor vehicles, industrial facilities and forest fires are common sources of air pollution. Air pollutants with the strongest evidence for adverse health outcomes include particulate matter (PM; both PM 2.5 (i.e. particles with an aerodynamic diameter
equal to or less than 2.5 μm) and PM10 (i.e. particles with an aerodynamic diameter equal to or less than 10 μm), ozone (O 3), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and carbon monoxide (CO). Air pollution is however composed of many more pollutants (1).
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WHO/Europe has launched a new guide, providing support to countries on how to apply behavioural and cultural insights (BCI) for health. It presents a simple step-wise approach, complemented by a rich collection of detailed considerations, tools and exercises. The guide is the first of its kind, spec...ifically developed for use by public health professionals developing policies, services and communications informed by BCI across health topics.
Some of the most persistent public health challenges involve human behaviour. Using a BCI lens means that health policies, services and communications can be tailored to the needs and circumstances of people and communities, and thereby help combat these challenges. The new Tailoring Health Programmes (THP) guide describes how this can be done.
Building on several topic-specific guides that focused on applying BCI to routine and influenza vaccination and tackling antimicrobial resistance, as well as external evaluations and a rigorous peer-review process, this guide is the result of over a decade of work by WHO/Europe. The THP approach has already been adopted in over 20 countries and has received positive feedback from public health agencies.
“This guide is the culmination of a decade of work involving many colleagues at country, regional and global levels. The guide is our “BCI bible”, guiding our work with and in countries to help tackle persistent health challenges,” said Katrine Bach Habersaat, Regional Advisor for BCI at WHO/Europe.
Karina Godoy, Senior Analyst and National Focal Point for Behavioural Insights at the Public Health Agency of Sweden, who is employing the approach described in the guide across several health projects, comments: “The THP guide is easy to use and at the same time provides detailed guidance and inspiration where needed. We have decided to translate the document into Swedish and use the approach widely”.
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Almost 25% of deaths worldwide could be prevented if the actions in the compendium were fully implemented
This compendium provides a systematic compilation of published guidance from WHO and other UN organizations on health and environment. Guidance on policies and actions as well as awareness rais...ing and capacity building interventions is presented for all major areas of health and environment. Guidance referring to priority settings for action such as cities and other urban settlements, housing, workplaces and health care facilities is also listed.
For greater practical relevance, each guidance is classified according to principally involved sectors, level of implementation and instruments for implementation.
The compilation of guidance for each area of health and environment or priority setting for action is accompanied, as available, by information on main sources, exposure assessment and existing guideline values. Important tools and further resources are presented alongside.
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The WHO Guidance on community mental health services: Promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches document is part of the WHO Guidance and technical packages on community mental health services set of publications. It provides a detailed description of person-centred and human rights-based ...approaches in mental health, and summary examples of good practice services around the world. It describes the linkages needed with housing, education, employment and social protection sectors, and presents examples of integrated regional and national networks of community-based mental health services. Specific recommendations and action steps are presented for developing community mental health services that respect human rights and focus on recovery. This comprehensive document is accompanied by a set of seven technical packages focused on specific categories of mental health services and guidance for setting up new services.
The WHO Guidance on community mental health services: Promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches is a set of publications that provides information and support to all stakeholders who wish to develop or transform their mental health system and services to align with international human rights standards including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
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A Systematic Review, Country Case Studies, and Recommendations for Integration into National Health Systems
Alliance Report
Participation of community health workers (CHWs) in the provision of primary health care has been experienced all over the world for several decades, and there is an amount ...of evidence showing that they can add significantly to the efforts of improving the health of the population, particularly in those settings with the highest shortage of motivated and capable health professionals.
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One of the many gender inequities in the health and care workforce that COVID-19 has exposed is around the fit and design of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The rapid onset and scale of COVID-19 led to shortages of PPE in most countries, causing preventable infection and mortality among healthc...are workers and others on the front lines. Even though most health workers are women, manufacturing specifications for medical PPE are usually drawn up based on the male body and there have been many reports of PPE not designed for women's bodies.
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This document, Programme and curriculum development guide, presents a systematic approach to developing programmes and curricula for implementation of the family planning (FP) and comprehensive abortion care (CAC) competencies,and the theory behind the approach. Specifically, the aim is for effectiv...e implementation of these competencies in the context of pre-service education and training, post-graduate studies and continuing professional development (CPD). This guide is designed for programme and curriculum developers who are preparing or revising formal education and training programmes and curricula for the FP and CAC workforce.
This guide proposes a new FP and CAC Educational Design Model for programme and curriculum development. This model can support competency-based education (CBE) for current and future FP and CAC services, with a pre-service training pathway of at least 12 months, and can also support in-service training. CBE provides the most effective means to orient educational programmes and curricula towards effective health services that meet population health needs, and this Educational Design Model provides a guide for linking the competencies required to provide a range of health services
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This guide is intended to support national governments developing their national deployment and vaccination plans (NDVPs) for COVID-19 vaccines by outlining the roles, needs and opportunities for community health workers (CHWs) to contribute. This note builds on and is structured to align with the G...uidance on developing a national deployment and vaccination plan for COVID-19 vaccines. By providing CHW-relevant considerations for the VIRAT Tool, this document aims to support national governments in developing robust NDVPs for introducing COVID-19 vaccine(s) that leverage all the community-based deployment, implementation and monitoring tools at their disposal.
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The objective of the 2022 Compendium is to compile and highlight emerging innovative health technologies for low-resource settings. It presents a snapshot of technologies that are solutions to an unmet medical/health technology need or are likely to improve health outcomes and the quality of life. H...ealth technologies in the Compendium underwent WHO evidence-based assessments focused on the life cycle of health technology innovations for low-resource settings.
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Can J Anesth/J Can Anesth June 2018, Volume 65, Issue 6, pp 698–708
Obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have been steadily increasing globally, and with them, a pressing need to implement effective responses to address the contributing factors. Among the available evidence-based policy options that enable healthier choices and improved diets is ...the implementation of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs).
This tax manual is a practical guide for policy-makers and others involved in SSB tax policy development to promote healthy diets and populations. It features summaries and case studies of SSB global taxation evidence, and provides support on the policy-cycle development process to implement SSB taxation — from problem identification and situation analysis through policy design, development and implementation to the monitoring and evaluation phase. Additionally, the manual identifies and debunks industry tactics designed to dissuade policy-makers from implementing these taxes.
SSB taxes can be a win-win-win strategy: a win for public health (and averted health-care costs), a win for government revenue, and a win for health equity.
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