This thematic brief accompanies the Working for Health 2022–2030 Action Plan, providing a rationale for the related actions of the Working for Health progression model (see Annex). This brief aims to inform Member States, non-state actors and other stakeholders vested in implementing the Action ...Plan to consider the context of planning and financing for the health and care workforce, including the relevant policy landscape, key challenges and future directions.
In doing so, it provides an expanded exploration of the themes beyond what is provided in the Action Plan Itself, and reflects the topical issues and considerations that shaped its design, including those issues identified in the World Health Assembly Resolution WHA74.14 to protect, safeguard and invest in the health and care workforce. The importance of these themes was again emphasized at the Seventy-fifth WHA, when Resolution WHA75.17: Human resources for health, was co-sponsored by over 100 Member States, calling for the adoption and implementation of the Working for Health 2022–2030 Action Plan and utilization of the related Global Health and Care Worker Compact.
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Journal of the International AIDS Society, vol. 21 Issue no. 6 e 25142
Weaknesses in care programmes providing anti‐retroviral therapy (ART) persist and are often instigated by late HIV diagnosis and poor linkage to care. We investigated the potential for a home‐based counselling and testin...g (HBCT) campaign to be improved through the optimal timing and enhancement of testing rounds to generate greater health outcomes at minimum cost.
Countries implementing HBCT can reduce costs by optimally timing rounds and generate greater health outcomes through improving linkage, coverage, and retention. Tailoring HBCT campaigns to individual settings can enhance patient outcomes for minimal cost.
https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25142
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As a public good, antimicrobial medicines require rational use if their effectiveness is to be preserved. However, up to 50% of antibiotic use is inappropriate, adding considerable costs to patient care, and increasing morbidity and mortality. In addition, there is compelling evidence that antimicro...bial resistance is driven by the volume of antimicrobial agents used. High rates of antimicrobial resistance to common treatments are currently reported all over the world, both in health care settings and in the community. For over two decades, the Region of the Americas has been a pioneer in confronting antimicrobial resistance from a public health perspective. However, those efforts need to be stepped up if we are to have an impact on antimicrobial resistance and want to quantify said impact.
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Mental health is critically important to everyone, everywhere. All over the world, mental health needs are high but responses are insufficient and inadequate. The World mental health report: transforming mental health for all is designed to inspire and inform better mental health for everyone everyw...here. Drawing on the latest evidence available, showcasing examples of good practice from around the world, and voicing people’s lived experience, it highlights why and where change is most needed and how it can best be achieved. It calls on all stakeholders to work together to deepen the value and commitment given to mental health, reshape the environments that influence mental health, and strengthen the systems that care for mental health.
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Mental health is critically important to everyone, everywhere. All over the world, mental health needs are high but responses are insufficient and inadequate. The World mental health report: transforming mental health for all is designed to inspire and inform better mental health for everyone everyw...here. Drawing on the latest evidence available, showcasing examples of good practice from around the world, and voicing people’s lived experience, it highlights why and where change is most needed and how it can best be achieved. It calls on all stakeholders to work together to deepen the value and commitment given to mental health, reshape the environments that influence mental health, and strengthen the systems that care for mental health.
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Beat the heat: child health amid heatwaves in Europe and Central Asia finds that half of these children died from heat-related illnesses in their first year of life. Most children died during the summer months.
"Around half of children across Europe and Central Asia – or 92 million children –... are already exposed to frequent heatwaves in a region where temperatures are rising at the fastest rate globally. The increasingly high temperatures can have serious health complications for children, especially the youngest children, even in a short space of time. Without care, these complications can be life-threatening,” said Regina De Dominicis UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia.
Heat exposure has acute effects on children, even before they are born, and can result in pre-term births, low birth weight, stillbirth, and congenital anomalies. Heat stress is a direct cause of infant mortality, can affect infant growth and cause a range of paediatric diseases. The report also notes that extreme heat caused the loss of more than 32,000 years of healthy life among children and teenagers in the region.
As the temperatures continue to rise, UNICEF urges governments across Europe and Central Asia to:
- Integrate strategies to reduce the impact of heatwaves including through National Determined Contributions (NDC), National Adaptation Plans (NAP), and disaster risk reduction and disaster management policies with children at the centre of these plans
Invest in heat health action plans and primary health care to more adequately support heat-related illness among children
- Invest in early warning systems, including heat alert systems
- Adapt education facilities to reduce the temperatures in the areas children play in and equip teachers with skills to respond to heat stress
- Adapt urban design and infrastructure including ensuring buildings, particularly those housing the most vulnerable communities are equipped to minimize heat exposure
- Secure the provision of safe water, particularly in countries with deteriorating water quality and availability.
UNICEF works with governments, partners and communities across the region to build resilience against heatwaves. This includes equipping teachers, community health workers and families with the skills and knowledge to respond to heat stress.
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This guideline provides health policy-makers and decision-makers in health professional training institutions with advice on the rationale for health-care providers’ use of counselling skills to address sexual health concerns in a primary health care setting
This updated Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2030 builds upon its predecessor and sets out clear actions for Member States, the WHO Secretariat and international, regional and national partners to promote mental health and well-being for all, to prevent mental health conditions for thos...e at-risk and to achieve universal coverage for mental health services. While the updated action plan includes new and updated indicators and implementation options, the original four major objectives remain unchanged: more effective leadership and governance for mental health; the provision of comprehensive, integrated mental health and social care services in community-based settings; implementation of strategies for promotion and prevention; and strengthened information systems, evidence and research.
In English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian available
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The Guidelines on promotive and preventive mental health interventions for adolescents - Helping Adolescents thrive (HAT), provide evidence-informed recommendations on psychosocial interventions to promote mental health, prevent mental disorders, and reduce self-harm and other risk behaviours among ...adolescents.
The HAT Guidelines aims to inform policy development, service planning and the strengthening of health and education systems, and facilitate mainstreaming of adolescent mental health promotion and prevention strategies across sectors and delivery platforms.
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Oral diseases are among the most common chronic diseases worldwide and constitute a major public health problem due to the huge health and economic burden on individuals, families, societies, and health care systems. The recent emphasis on the role of determinants of health, common risk factors and ...their recognition in the context of the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) provides good opportunities for integrating oral health into NCD prevention and control efforts. This Strategy for oral health in South-East Asia, 2013-2020, presents guidance to Member States in developing national policy and action plans to improve oral health within existing socioeconomic, cultural, political and health system contexts. It expresses the consensus on major strategies in the area of oral health promotion as well as oral disease prevention and control for the South-East Asia Region aiming at reducing the health and socioeconomic burden resulting from oral diseases, reducing oral health inequities, and improving the quality of life of the population.
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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown that public financial management (PFM) should be an integral part of the response. Effectiveness in financing the health response depends not only on the level of funding but also on the way public funds are allocated and spent, this is determined by the PFM r...ules, and how money flows to health service providers. So far, early assessments have shown that PFM systems ranged from being a fundamental enabler to acting as a roadblock in the COVID-19 health response. While service delivery mechanisms have been extensively documented throughout the pandemic, the underlying PFM mechanisms of the response also merit attention. To highlight the importance of PFM in health emergency contexts, this rapid review analyses various country PFM experiences and identifies early lessons emerging from the financing of the health response to COVID-19. The assessment is done by stages of the budget cycle: budget allocation, budget execution, and budget oversight. Identifying lessons from the varying PFM modalities used to finance the response to COVID-19 is fundamental both for health policy-makers and for finance authorities to prepare for future health emergencies.
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This situation analysis has gathered information about the current state of AMR, contributing factors and antimicrobial use in Zimbabwe from the human, animal, agricultural and environmental sectors. Data has been gathered from different sectors such as the general public, academia, the Ministry of ...Health and Child Care, the Ministry of Agriculture Mechanization and Irrigation Development and the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate. It shows that AMR is a real concern in Zimbabwe and a threat to the health outcomes of humans, to the economic productivity of the livestock industry and a risk to the environment.
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Specifically the Strategy focuses on five strategic objectives:
commitment to action on Healthy Ageing in every country;
developing age-friendly environments;
aligning health systems to the needs of older populations;
developing sustainable and equitable systems for providing lon...g-term care (home, communities, institutions); and
improving measurement, monitoring and research on Healthy Ageing.
Available in Englisch, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish
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The Mental Health Atlas, released every three years, is a compilation of data provided by countries around the world on mental health policies, legislation, financing, human resources, availability and utilization of services and data collection systems. It serves as a guide for countries for the de...velopment and planning of mental health services. The Mental Health Atlas 2020 includes information and data on the progress made towards achieving mental health targets for 2020 set by the global health community and included in WHO’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan. It includes data on newly-added indicators on service coverage, mental health integration into primary health care, preparedness for the provision of mental health and psychosocial support in emergencies and research on mental health. It also includes new targets for 2030.
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NUDOR’s first strategic plan (2010-2016) focused on establishing NUDOR as a viable, well-run organisation. Significant progress has been made towards these aims and therefore the strategy and has been reviewed by NUDOR board, secretariat and member organisations. The updated strategic plan now cov...ers the period 2015 – 2020 for which three strategic aims have been agreed.
1. Representation and accountability: NUDOR will be accountable to and effectively represent members’ interests through the delivery of projects and priorities agreed by member organisations, and by facilitating joint working amongst members.
2. Capacity building and resource mobilization: NUDOR and its member organisations are strengthened to fulfil its mandates by developing its technical skills, research and insight, sustainability and outreach.
3. Advocacy and influencing: NUDOR will work to ensure that the needs and rights of all persons with disabilities are recognised by all, mainstreamed in laws and policies at all levels of government, and in programmes of other institutions focusing on areas of education, health and poverty reduction.
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As the global community aims to fulfill its commitments to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the achievement of universal health coverage, dozens of countries have committed to the expansion of community health workers (CHWs) as the front line of their healthcare systems [1, 2]. Robust resea...rch demonstrates CHWs improve access to care, reduce maternal, newborn, and child mortality, improve clinical outcomes for chronic diseases, and prevent disease outbreaks [3].
To support the operationalization of quality CHW program design and implementation, USAID, UNICEF, the Community Health Impact Coalition, and Initiatives Inc. have updated and adapted the Community Health Worker Assessment and Improvement Matrix (CHW AIM) Program Functionality Matrix [12]. This tool can be used to identify design and implementation gaps in both small- and national-scale CHW programs, and close gaps in policy and practice.
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Thefirst report on Latin America and the Carribean presents key indicators on health and health systems in 33 Latin America and the Caribbean countries. . Analysis is based on the latest comparable data across almost 100 indicators including equity, health status, determinants of health, health car...e resources and utilisation, health expenditure and financing, and quality of care. The editorial discusses the main challenges for the region brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as managing the outbreak as well as mobilising adequate resources and using them efficiently to ensure an effective response to the epidemic.
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MODULE 5 RESOURCE GUIDE | This guide is part of a series of manuals that focuses on six topics in Early Childhood Development (ECD): different programming approaches, basic concepts, assessments, early childhood environments, children with special needs and child protection, and the health, safety a...nd nutrition of young children. The series was prepared within a three-year CRS-led project called “Strengthening the Capacity of Women Religious in Early Childhood Development,” or “SCORE ECD.” Funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the project helps Catholic sisters in Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia in their work with children aged 0-5 years and their families. The project is being implemented from January 2014 to December 2016
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J Fungi (Basel) . 2019 Aug 16;5(3):75. doi: 10.3390/jof5030075 . Namibia is a sub-Saharan country with one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world. Although care and support services are available that cater for opportunistic infections related to HIV, the main focus is narrow and predominan...tly aimed at tuberculosis. We aimed to estimate the burden of serious fungal infections in Namibia, currently unknown, based on the size of the population at risk and available epidemiological data. Data were obtained from the World Health Organization (WHO), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and published reports.
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The document is a comprehensive practical guide for managing cholera epidemics. It includes detailed instructions on outbreak investigation, control measures, case management, and the organization of treatment facilities. It emphasizes strategies such as rehydration therapy, water sanitation, hygien...e promotion, and vaccination to prevent the spread of cholera. The guide serves as a resource for healthcare professionals, logisticians, and public health officials to respond effectively to cholera outbreaks.
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