An Economist Intelligence Unit briefing paper | The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) undertook a study aimed at assessing the degree of commitment of 15 countries within the AsiaPacific region to integrating those with mental illness into their communities. The research was commissioned and funded... by Janssen Asia Pacific, a division of Johnson & Johnson Pte. Ltd. This report focuses on the results of this benchmarking study, called the Asia-Pacific Mental Health Integration Index. Drawing on lessons from the EIU’s 2014 European Mental Health Integration Index, this edition index compares the level of effort in each of the countries on indicators associated with integrating individuals suffering from mental illness into society. Data for the Index was collected between March and May 2016. The set of 18 indicators were grouped into four categories.
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There is no guarantee that a successful pilot program introducing a reproductive health innovation can also be expanded successfully to the national or regional level, because the scaling-up process is complex and multilayered. This article describes how a successful pilot program to integrate the S...tandard Days Method (SDM) of family planning into existing Ministry of Health services was scaled up nationally in Rwanda.
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Preliminary version for country introduction
SAMJ Review Vol. 108 No.3
Chronic Dis Int - Volume 3 Issue 1 - 2016
ISSN 2379-7983
Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) is an essential part of any disease outbreak response. Risk communication in the context of an Ebola outbreak refers to real time exchange of information, opinion and advice between frontline responders and people who are faced with the threat of Eb...ola to their survival, health, economic or social wellbeing. Community engagement refers to mutual partnership between Ebola response teams and individuals or communities in affected areas, whereby community stakeholders have ownership in controlling the spread of the outbreak.
It is intended to be used to guide RCCE work which is central to stopping the outbreak and preventing its further amplification. Unlike other areas of response, RCCE draws heavily on volunteers, frontline personnel and on people without prior training in this area. As such, the document provides basic background information, scopes the socio-economic and cultural aspects (that are known at the time of publication), and provides the latest evidence-based advice and approaches
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This paper examines how diaspora and local organisations have responded to the crisis in Syria, how they evolved and the challenges that they face - and how international aid organisations and disapora and local groups can better work together in a new aid model.
Since the Alma Ata Declaration in 1978, community health volunteers (CHVs) have been at the forefront, providing health services, especially to underserved communities, in low-income countries. However, consolidation of CHVs position within formal health systems has proved to be complex and continue...s to challenge countries, as they devise strategies to strengthen primary healthcare. Malawi’s community health strategy, launched in 2017, is a novel attempt to harmonise the multiple health
service structures at the community level and strengthen service delivery through a team-based approach. The core community health team (CHT) consists of health surveillance assistants (HSAs), clinicians, environmental health officers and CHVs. This paper reviews Malawi’s strategy, with particular focus on the interface between HSAs, volunteers in community-based programmes and
the community health team. Our analysis identified key challenges that may impede the strategy’s implementation:
(1) inadequate training, imbalance of skill sets within CHTs and unclear job descriptions for CHVs; (2) proposed community-level interventions require expansion of pre-existing roles for most CHT members; and (3) district authorities may face challenges meeting financial obligations and filling community-level positions. For effective implementation, attention and further deliberation is needed on the appropriate forms of CHV support, CHT composition with possibilities of co-opting trained CHVs
from existing volunteer programmes into CHTs, review of CHT competencies and workload, strengthening coordination and communication across all community actors, and financing mechanisms. Policy support through the development of an addendum to the strategy, outlining opportunities for task-shifting between CHT members, CHVs’ expected duties and interactions with paid CHT personnel is recommended.
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Financing Global Health 2016: Development Assistance, Public and Private Health Spending for the Pursuit of Universal Health Coverage presents a complete analysis of the resources available for health in 184 countries, with a particular focus on development assistance for health (DAH). DAH was estim...ated to total $37.6 billion in 2016, up 0.1% from 2015. After a decade of rapid growth from 2000 to 2010 (up 11.4% annually), DAH grew at only 1.8% annually between 2010 and 2016. In low-income countries, where much DAH is targeted, DAH made up 34.6% of total health spending in 2016. In upper-middle- and high-income countries, which generally do not receive DAH, DAH accounted for only 0.5% of total health spending. The other 99.5% of health spending – government, prepaid private, and out-of-pocket spending – is the subject of our further analysis.
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The guide to implementing the One Health Joint Plan of Action (OH JPA) at national level provides practical guidance on how countries can adopt and adapt the OH JPA to strengthen and support national One Health action.
Building on the OH JPA theory of change, this guide describes three pathways a...nd five key steps to implement the OH JPA at national level:
Pathway 1 -- Governance, policy, legislation, financing and advocacy
Pathway 2 -- Organizational and institutional development, implementation and sectoral integration
Pathway 3 -- Data, evidence, information systems and knowledge exchange.
The stepwise approach comprises:
Situation analysis including stakeholder mapping and review of existing assessment results
Set-up/strengthening of a multisectoral, One Health coordination mechanism
Planning for implementation, including activity prioritization and leveraging of resources
Implementation of national One Health action plans
Review, sharing and incorporation of lessons learned.
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In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized Chagas disease (CD; Trypanosoma cruzi infection) as a neglected tropical disease (NTD) [1] and included it into the global plan to combat NTDs [2]. The Target 3.3 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN/SDG) aims at ending the e...pidemics of NTDs by 2030 [3]. Mother-to-child (congenital/connatal) transmission is currently the main mode of transmission of T. cruzi over blood transfusions and organ transplantations in vector-free areas within and outside Latin America (LA). Based on recent demonstrations that congenital transmission can be prevented [4–7], WHO has shifted its objective, in 2018, from control to elimination of congenital CD (cCD).
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Health ministries currently lack effective tools for monitoring and evaluation of schistosomiasis control programmes. Egg detection can be used, but the cost, challenges of obtaining samples, and the need for trained personnel and equipment limit the frequency of monitoring. The purpose of this TPP ...is to guide the development of new diagnostic tools to reliably measure when prevalence is above or below a cut-off of 10% in school-aged children. Communities remaining above 10% require annual MDA, while communities below 10% can reduce MDA frequency as long as < 10% prevalence can be maintained. However, the lack of a reliable test has hindered the development of maintenance strategies. The test is also needed to track changes of prevalence > 10% to ensure that annual MDA is reducing overall prevalence.
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Gender-based violence, including rape is a problem throughout the world, occurring in every society, country and region. Refugees and internally displaced people are particularly at risk of this violation during every phase of an emergency situation. The systematic use of sexual violence as a method... of warfare is well documented and constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law.
The Arabic Version can be downloaded here: http://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/guidelines-health-staff-caring-gender-based-violence-survivors-including
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Cureus. 2015 Nov; 7(11): e372.
Published online 2015 Nov 3. doi: 10.7759/cureus.372
PMCID: PMC4671837
PMID: 26677422