WHO-OHCHR launch new guidance to improve laws addressing human rights abuses in mental health care
Ahead of World Mental Health Day, the World <...span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">Health Organization (WHO) and the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) are jointly launching a new guidance, entitled "Mental health, human rights and legislation: guidance and practice", to support countries to reform legislation in order to end human rights abuses and increase access to quality mental health care.
Human rights abuses and coercive practices in mental health care, supported by existing legislation and policies, are still far too common. Involuntary hospitalization and treatment, unsanitary living conditions and physical, psychological, and emotional abuse characterize many mental health services across the world.
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The object of this bill is to provide for a legal framework to promote the existence of Community Health Workers (CHWs) and to provide for clarity ...in the role and responsibilities assigned to CHWs in the Health sector and to promote and strengthen service delivery at the Community level. The law will regulate training, certification and registration and set minimum qualifications and standards and working conditions for the CHWs.
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On the global scale, the impacts of the current food system on the environment are severe. The agro-industrial revolution has made it possible to increase food production at a price.
Global Situation Assessment of El Niño-related Health Risks
: Development assistance for health (DAH) is one of the most important means for Japan to promote
diplomacy with developing countries and contribute to the international community. This study, for ...the first time,
estimated the gross disbursement of Japan’s DAH from 2012 to 2016 and clarified its flows, including source, aid
type, channel, target region, and target health focus area
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Experience of national TB partnerships
The majority of developing countries will fail to achieve their targets for Universal Health Coverage (UHC)1 and the health- and poverty-related Su...stainable Development Goals (SDGs) unless they take urgent steps to strengthen their health financing. Just over a decade out from the SDG deadline of 2030, 3.6 billion people do not receive the most essential health services they need, and 100 million are pushed into poverty from paying out-of-pocket for health services. The evidence is strong that progress towards UHC, core to SDG 3, will spur inclusive and sustainable economic growth, yet this will not happen unless countries achieve high-performance health financing, defined here as funding levels that are adequate and sustainable; pooling that is sufficient to spread the financial risks of ill-health; and spending that is efficient and equitable to assure desired levels of health service coverage, quality, and financial protection for all people— with resilience and sustainability.
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This document provides an overview of strategic purchasing of nutrition services within primary health care. It introduces key terms and payment me...thods for countries to use in preparing to transform their health financial systems to scale up nutrition services. It does so by introducing nutritional perspectives to strategic health purchasing core areas: What to buy, From whom to buy and How to buy.
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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 a...nd social care facilities.
The tool kit is based on an extensive international review by people with 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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The brief concludes that sustaining the continuity of EHS requires policies that ensure a whole-society and systems strengthening approach. This involves increased health care investment, community ...engagement, disease control regulations, and multisector approaches to improve resilience, EHS quality, and equity.
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I examine the effectiveness of donors in targeting the highest burden of malaria in the Democratic Republic of Congo when ...-highlight medbox">health information structure is fragmented. I exploit local variations in the burden of malaria induced by mining activities as well as financial and epidemiological data from health facilities to estimate how local aid is matching local health needs. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find significant but quantitatively small variations in aid to health facilities located within mining areas. Comparing local aid with the additional cost of treatment and prevention associated with the increased risk of malaria transmission, I find suggestive evidence that local populations with the highest burden of the disease receive a proportionately lower share of aid compared to neighbouring areas with reduced exposure to malaria infection. The evidence of disparities in the allocation of aid for malaria supports the view that donors may have inaccurate information about local population needs.
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WHO QualityRights is an initiative which aims to improve the quality of care in mental health and related services and to promote the human rights of...n> people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities, throughout the world.
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At least half of the world’s population does not have full coverage of essential health services. Hea...lth expenses push more than 100 million people into extreme poverty each and every year, forcing them into terrible choices that no one should ever have to make: Buy medicine or food? Education or health care? These stark statistics make the case for universal health coverage compelling.
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The application of digital health technology is growing at a rapid rate in Africa, with the goals of improving the delivery ...to-highlight medbox">of healthcare services and more effectively reaching out to remote and underserved communities. The lack of enabling guidelines and standards across the continent, on the other hand, makes it difficult to share data in a meaningful way across the continent.
Considering this, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) established a task force of 24 members to provide expertise and guidance in the development of AU HIE guidelines and standards. Members of the task force were subject matter experts working in Africa and internationally on the collection, analysis, and exchange of health information. Some of these experts had been involved in previous consultations on defining Africa CDC’s health information systems strategy. A chairperson, co-chairperson, and secretary were elected to engage the task force members in different technical working groups.
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In 2017, $37.4 billion of development assistance was provided to low- and middleincome countries to maintain or improve health. This amount is down slightly compared to 2016, and since 2010, develop...ment assistance for health (DAH) has grown at an annualized rate of 1.0%. While global development assistance for health has seemingly leveled off, global health spending continues to climb, outpacing economic growth in many countries. Total health spending for 2015, the most recent year for which data are available, was estimated to be $9.7 trillion (95% uncertainty interval: 9.7–9.8)*, up 4.7% (3.9–5.6) from the prior year, and accounted for 10% of the world’s total economy. With some sources of health spending growing and other types remaining steady, and with major variations in spending from country to country, it is more important than ever to understand where resources for health come from, where they go, and how they align with health needs. This information is critical for planning and is a necessary catalyst for change as we aim to close the gap on the unfinished agenda of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and move forward toward universal health coverage (UHC) in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era.
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A key purpose of the Recovery Toolkit is to support countries in the reactivation of health services which may have suffered as a result ...s="attribute-to-highlight medbox">of the emergency. These services include ongoing programmes such as immunization and vaccinations, maternal and child health services, and noncommunicable diseases.
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