The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as ‘a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community’. Mental illn...ess refers to all of the diagnosable mental disorders, which are characterised by abnormalities in thinking, feelings or behaviours. Mental illness is closely related to vulnerability, both in its causes and in its effects. Globally, 14 per cent of the global burden of disease is attributed to mental illness – with 75 per cent of those affected being found in low-income countries – which includes a broad spectrum of diagnoses, from common mental illnesses such as anxiety and
substance abuse, to severe illnesses like psychosis.
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Policy and systems. Global Mental Health(2017),4, e7, page 1 of 6. doi:10.1017/gmh.2017.3
Checklists and 13 user-friendly modules to support policy development and service planning. You can download the different modules directly from the website:
https://www.who.int/mental_health/policy/essentialpackage1/en/
The purpose of the guidance package is to assist policy-makers and planner...s to:
develop policies and comprehensive strategies for improving the mental health of populations;
use existing resources to achieve the greatest possible benefits;
provide effective services to those in need;
assist the reintegration of persons with mental disorders into all aspects of community life, thus improving their overall quality of lif
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Prevention, Assessment and Management
World Health Organization Department of Reproductive Health and Research
Brocher Foundation, Hermance, Geneva, Switzerland, 27–29 April 2016
This document is intended to guide the care of COVID-19 patients as the response capacity of health systems is challenged; to ensure that COVID-19 patients can access life-saving treatment, without compromising public health objectives and safety of health workers.
It promotes two key messages:
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1. Key public health interventions regardless of transmission scenario; and
2. Key action steps to be taken by transmission scenario to enable timely surge of clinical operations.
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The results of a WHO survey conducted to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on up to 25 essential health services in countries show disruptions of essential health services in nearly all countries, and more so in lower-income than higher-income countries. The great majority of service disrup...tions were partial, which was defined as a change of 5–50% in service provision or use.
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The Department of Health is committed to providing the best quality care to patients and users of health services, in order to meet their expectations and needs, and to improve service delivery.
The main purpose of the National Core Standards is to:
• Develop a common definition of quality of ...care, which should be found in all health establishments in South Africa as a guide to the public and to managers and staff at all levels;
• Establish a benchmark against which health establishments can be assessed, gaps identified, strengths appraised; and
• Provide a national framework to certify health establishments as compliant with standards
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This is the sixth of our 11-paper supplement entitled “Community Health Workers at the Dawn of New Era”. Expectations of community health workers (CHWs) have expanded in recent years to encompass a wider array
of services to numerous subpopulations, engage communities to collaborate with and to... assist health systems in responding to complex and sometimes intensive threats. In this paper, we explore a set of key considerations for training of CHWs in response to their enhanced and changing roles and provide actionable recommendations based on
current evidence and case examples for health systems leaders and other stakeholders to utilize.
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Countries reported disruptions in all health-care settings. In more than half of countries surveyed, many people are still unable to access care at the primary care and community care levels. Significant disruptions have also been reported in emergency care, particularly concerning given the impact... on people with urgent health needs. Thirty-six per cent of countries reported disruptions to ambulance services; 32% to 24-hour emergency room services; and 23% to emergency surgeries.
Elective surgeries have also been disrupted in 59% of countries, which can have accumulating consequences on health and well-being as the pandemic continues. Disruptions to rehabilitative care and palliative care were also reported in around half of the countries surveyed.
Major barriers to health service recovery include pre-existing health systems issues which have been exacerbated by the pandemic as well as decreased demand for care.
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A framework to guide planetary health education - The lancet, Planetary health
This guideline covers road-traffic-related air pollution and its links to ill health. It aims to improve air quality and so prevent a range of health conditions and deaths.
WBCSD Vision 2050 sets out the goal to achieve the highest attainable standard of health and wellbeing for everyone by 2050, calling for a world in which: people live healthy lives; societies promote and protect health; everyone has access to robust, resilient and sustainable healthcare services; an...d all workplaces promote health and wellbeing. Business has a significant role to play in realizing this vision, thereby creating healthier and happier societies and building business resilience.
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This report started with a simple question—“How can we tell how much funding is devoted to global health programs?”—and ended (more than two years later) with an answer that is far from simple. As those who have tried know well, tracking health-related funding is challenging in any setting, ...given the range of public and private sources and the many types of services and programs that fall within the definition of “health sector.” It is made all the more complicated when significant external support from donors and private charities plus in-kind donations of drugs and other inputs are taken into account. The task is made yet harder by inadequate public expenditure management systems in countries where public agencies’ capacity is stretched very thin and by donor accounting structures that are not designed to respond in a timely way
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A corruption event in 2009 led to changes in how donors supported the Zambian health system. Donor funding was withdrawn from the district basket mechanism, originally designed to pool donor and government financing for primary care. The withdrawal of these funds from the pooled financing mechanism ...raised questions from Government and donors regarding the impact on primary care financing during this period of aid volatility.
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