Health Services Insights Volume 10: 1–7
An Overview of Current Evidence with Recommendations for Strengthening Community Health Worker Programs to Accelerate Progress in Achieving the Health-related Millennium Development Goals
PLoS ONE 11(1): e0144662. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0144662
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) showed
that global commitment and collective action
could significantly reduce the disease burdens of
three deadly communicable diseases: HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. The MDGs helped
focus efforts on these three deadly diseases
and leveraged
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disease-specific programmes and
financing, thus achieving significant progress.
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Frontline health workers (FHWs) provide services directly to communities where they are most needed, especially in remote and rural areas. Many are community health workers and midwives, though they
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can also include local emergency responders/paramedics, pharmacists, nurses, and doctors who serve in community clinics.
The growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on low- and middle-income countries threatens many health systems that are already weakened. In many countries, health systems—and health workers—are not prepared to address the complex nature of NCDs. Health systems are often fragmented, and designed to respond to single episodes of care or long-term prevention and control of infectious diseases.1 Many countries also continue to face shortages and distribution challenges of trained and supported health workers. As most NCDs are multifactorial in origin and are detected later in their evolution, health systems face significant challenges to provide early detection as well as affordable, effective, and timely treatment, particularly in underserved communities.
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Financing Global Health 2014 is the sixth edition of this annually produced report on global health financing. As in previous years, this report captures trends in development assistance for
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health (DAH) and government health expenditure (GHE). Health financing is one of IHME’s core research areas, and the aim of the series is to provide much-needed information to global health stakeholders. Updated GHE and DAH estimates allow decision-makers to pinpoint funding gaps and investment opportunities vital to improving population health. This year, IHME made a number of improvements to the data collection and methods implemented to produce Financing Global Health estimates. Both government health expenditure and development assistance for health estimates were updated and enhanced in 2013.
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Mugisha et al. Int J Ment Health Syst (2017) 11:7 DOI 10.1186/s13033-016-0114-2
The global burden of disease due to mental disorders continues to rise, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). In addition to causing a large proportion of morbidity, mental disorders – especially severe mental disorders (SMD) – are linked with poorer
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health outcomes and increased mortality. SMD are defined as a group of conditions that include moderate to severe depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. People with SMD have a two to three times higher average mortality compared to the general population, which translates to a 10-20 year reduction in life expectancy. While people with SMD do have higher rates of death due to unnatural causes (accidents, homicide, or suicide) than the general population, the
majority of deaths amongst people with SMD are attributable to physical health conditions, both
non-communicable and communicable.
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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
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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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The power relations around global decisions which shape population health can be changed through new alliances and information flows. The Democratising Global Health Governance Initiative, of which
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WHO Watch is a project, is designed to contribute to improved population health (and health equity) through new alliances and information flows.
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The aim of the WHO QualityRights tool kit is to support countries in assessing and
improving the quality and human rights of their mental health and social care facilities.
The tool kit is based on an extensive international review by people with
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mental disabilities
and their organizations. It has been pilot-tested in low-, middle- and high-income
countries and is designed to be applied in all of these resource settings.
In this tool kit, the term ‘people with mental disabilities’ can include those with mental,
neurological or intellectual impairments and those with substance use disorders.
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2nd edition.
The tool kit provides learning objects and curricular content to support the competencies for those proficiency/trainee levels
guidance for health managers, health workers, and activists
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 pr
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imary 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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This special issue on Newborn Health in Global Health Action is being launched to share the experience of how to scale up a cost-effective package of newborn care that involves families, community
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health workers and health facilities. The results of this community randomized trial, the Uganda Newborn Study (UNEST), show that home visits in pregnancy and soon after delivery resulted in improved breastfeeding practices, skin-to-skin care immediately after birth, delaying a baby’s first bath, and hygienic care of the baby’s umbilical cord among the poorest households with lowest access to care.
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