This document provides guidance to African Union Member States on key mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) considerations in relation to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It contains useful guidance on MHPSS for the community, healthcare workers, caregivers of vulnerable po...pulations and people in quarantine, isolation or treatment centers(1)
(2). This guidance aims to provide practical steps to reduce stress, anxiety, stigma and psychological disorders associated with COVID-19 and improve overall mental health and well being. This guidance can be used for planning purposes by policy makers and Ministries of
health and institutions coordinating emergency response to COVID-19 response by Member States. It can also be disseminated to stakeholders.
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Background: Community Health Workers (CHWs) have a positive impact on the provision of community-based
primary health care through screening, treatment, referral, psychosocial support, and accompaniment. With a
broad scope of work, CHW programs must balance the breadth and depth of tasks to mainta...in CHW motivation for
high-quality care delivery. Few studies have described the CHW perspective on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to
enhance their programmatic activities.
Methods: We utilized an exploratory qualitative study design with CHWs employed in the household model in Neno
District, Malawi, to explore their perspectives on intrinsic and extrinsic motivators and dissatisfiers in their work. Data
was collected in 8 focus group discussions with 90 CHWs in October 2018 and March–April 2019 in seven purposively
selected catchment areas. All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, coded, and analyzed using Dedoose.
Results: Themes of complex intrinsic and extrinsic factors were generated from the perspectives of the CHWs in
the focus group discussions. Study results indicate that enabling factors are primarily intrinsic factors such as positive
patient outcomes, community respect, and recognition by the formal health care system but can lead to the chal-
lenge of increased scope and workload. Extrinsic factors can provide challenges, including an increased scope and
workload from original expectations, lack of resources to utilize in their work, and rugged geography. However, a posi-
tive work environment through supportive relationships between CHWs and supervisors enables the CHWs.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated enabling factors and challenges for CHW performance from their perspec-
tive within the dual-factor theory. We can mitigate challenges through focused efforts to limit geographical distance,
manage workload, and strengthen CHW support to reinforce their recognition and trust. Such programmatic empha-
sis can focus on enhancing motivational factors found in this study to improve the CHWs’ experience in their role. The
engagement of CHWs, the communities, and the formal health care system is critical to improving the care provided
to the patients and communities, along with building supportive systems to recognize the work done by CHWs for
the primary health care systems.
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The scope of this PPC document is to serve as a guide to address the unmet public health need for a PPE system that protects the HW-F in tropical climate
s while caring for patients and providing heavy duty essential health services.
The characteristics described in this guidance are targeted fo...r PPE used in
health clinics, hospitals and communities in low resource settings where there is lack of advanced environmental controls and equipment. The purpose is to ensure harmonization in PPE design and its use to avoid confusion and exacerbating the risk of infections in HW-F. The principles of this PPC document can also be considered in risk reduction strategies
in other healthcare settings.
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PLOS Medicine | www.plosmedicine.org
January 2013 | Volume 10 | Issue 1 | e1001371
ATLAS on substance use (2010) — Resources for the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders
Accessed: 14.03.2019
Report by the Director-General. 75th World health assembly 25 April 2022
Mycetoma is a chronic, progressively destructive infectious disease of the subcutaneous tissues, affecting skin, muscle and bone. Mycetoma occurs in tropical and subtropical environments characterized by short rainy seasons and prolonged dry seasons that favour the growth of thorny bushes. Global bu...rden is not known, but the disease is endemic; it has been reported from countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. This course addresses the epidemiology of mycetoma, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment, and public health interventions.
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For the purpose of this document, Interprofessional is defined as: Multiple health disciplines with diverse knowledge and skills who share an integrated set of goals and who utilize interdependent collaboration that involves communication, sharing of knowledge and coordination of services to provide... services to patients/clients and their care-giving systems. This best practice guideline, Developing and Sustaining Interprofessional Health Care: Optimizing patients/clients, organizational, and system outcomes is intended to foster healthy work environments. The focus in developing this guideline was identifying attributes of interprofessional care that will optimize quality outcomes for patients/clients, providers, teams, the organization and the system. This guideline identifies best practices to enable, enhance and sustain teamwork and interprofessional collaboration, and to enhance positive outcomes for patients/clients, systems and organizations. It is based on the best available evidence; where evidence was limited, the recommendations were based on the consensus of expert opinion.
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The GHS Index is intended to be a key resource in the face of increasing risks of high-consequence and globally catastrophic biological events and in light of major gaps in international financing for preparedness. These risks are magnified by a rapidly changing and interconnected world; increasing ...political instability; urbanization; climate change; and rapid technology advances that make it easier, cheaper, and faster to create and engineer pathogens.
Key findings from the study of 195 countries:
• Out of a possible 100 points, the average GHS Index score across 195 countries was 40.2.
• The majority of high- and middle-income countries do not score above 50.
• Action is urgently needed to improve countries’ readiness for high-consequence infectious disease outbreaks.
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22 July 2022. This document summarizes current WHO guidance for public health surveillance of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in humans caused by infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
For IST to be effective there is need for utilization of multiple techniques that will lead to transfer of competences (Bluestone et al. 2013). Learning settings should be selected to support relevant and realistic practice so as to increase the efficiency of IST. Alternatives to hotels such as trai...ning institutions and hospitals are viable options for reducing costs of IST as well as being appropriate venues (MOH 2012). There is documented evidence of involvement of academic institutions in providing health leadership capacity building through IST in other countries; for example, in Uganda, IST in leadership for doctors and nurses was done through a blended approach that included didactic and online sessions (Nakanjako et al. 2015). Adapting these concepts, FUNZOKenya piloted eight regional hubs, each serving a cluster of counties, which would train health workers for five years (2012-2016) on priority service delivery topics
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A Global Campaign Against Epilepsy Demonstration Project
This regional summary draws on the WHO Global oral health status report (2), published in 2022, which provides a comprehensive overview of the global oral disease burden, the global health importance of oral health and the impact of oral diseases over the life course.
The summary focuses on the ...oral health status in the Western Pacific Region and is split into four sections: (a) oral diseases are global and regional health problems; (b) the burden of the main oral diseases; (c) key challenges and opportunities towards oral health for all in the Western Pacific Region; and (d) road map towards UHC for oral health 2030. This regional summary is based on the 27 Member States in the Region.
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