Integrated Management of Adolescent and Adult Illness (IMAI)
July 2008
This briefing note summarises key mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) considerations in relation to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Physical distancing measures are important to reduce COVID-19 transmission. However, when stringently applied, they can result in negative health and socio-economic impacts. This report draws on a rapid review of available literature, case studies f...rom across Africa and expert knowledge to make recommendations on adapting classic physical distancing measures to the contextual realities in Africa and on mitigating potential negative impacts.
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One of the most obvious ways in which to ensure impartiality in a health care system is to require impartiality of all actors in the system, i.e. to give health care professionals a duty to treat ev...eryone impartially and to deny them the ‘right’ to give their patients preferential treatment. And one of the possible side-effects of allowing individual health care professionals to give preference to ‘their clients’ is to create inequality in health care. This paper explores the conflict and proposes that it can be right to give preference to ‘your’ patients in certain circumstances.
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Every year, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm – before 37 weeks of pregnancy. That is more than 1 in 10 live births. Approximately 1 million children die each year worldwide due to complications from their early birth. Those that survive often face a lifetime of ill-...ibute-to-highlight medbox">health including disability, learning difficulties, and visual and hearing problems.
Half of the babies born at or below 32 weeks (2 months early) die in low-income settings, due to a lack of feasible, cost-effective care, such as warmth, breastfeeding support, and basic care for infections and breathing difficulties. In high-income countries, almost all these babies survive.
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For the first time WHO and UNICEF bring together the data on sanitation coverage and investment, and how it impacts health, economies, and the environment. Citing evidence on what works from successful countries and global guidelines, WHO and UNICEF... call for strong government leadership and investment in resilient sanitation services. The report charts an ambitious way forward following the SDG6 global acceleration framework themes of governance, financing, capacity development, data and information, and innovation to achieve universal access to safe sanitation.
Read the full publication report here: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240014473.
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BMJ Global Health2020;5:e002014. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2019-002014
This guide is intended to support national governments developing their national deployment and vaccination plans (NDVPs) for COVID-19 vaccines by outlining the roles, needs and opportunities for community health workers (CHWs) to contribute. This n...ote builds on and is structured to align with the Guidance on developing a national deployment and vaccination plan for COVID-19 vaccines. By providing CHW-relevant considerations for the VIRAT Tool, this document aims to support national governments in developing robust NDVPs for introducing COVID-19 vaccine(s) that leverage all the community-based deployment, implementation and monitoring tools at their disposal.
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Recognizing the importance of the critical role of community health in disaster management, the Amref health Africa has
developed this operational guide to provide policy direction on COVID-19 resp...onse at community level. This guide has
been developed in collaboration with all the implementing countries in supporting prevention and control of COVID-19.
With a strong community COVID-19 response system at community level, we can all contribute to prevention and control
of COVID-19, and thereby improve health and livelihoods for all people
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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 H...ealth 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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For the primary health worker in a low/middle-income country (LMIC) setting, delivering quality primary care is challenging. This is often complicated by clinical guidance that is out of date, inconsistent and informed by evidence from high-income c...ountries that ignores LMIC resource constraints and burden of disease. The Knowledge Translation Unit (KTU) of the University of Cape Town Lung Institute has developed, implemented and evaluated a health systems intervention in South Africa, and localised it to Botswana, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Brazil, that simplifies and standardises the care delivered by primary health workers while strengthening the system in which they work. At the core of this intervention, called Practical Approach to Care Kit (PACK), is a clinical decision support tool, the PACK guide. This paper describes the development of the guide over an 18-year period and explains the design features that have addressed what the patient, the clinician and the health system need from clinical guidance, and have made it, in the words of a South African primary care nurse, ‘A tool for every day for every patient’. It describes the lessons learnt during the development process that the KTU now applies to further development, maintenance and in-country localisation of the guide: develop clinical decision support in context first, involve local stakeholders in all stages, leverage others’ evidence databases to remain up to date and ensure content development, updating and localisation articulate with implementation.
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The menu was developed using the WHO-CHOICE methodology to prepare and update, as appropriate, WHO estimates of the cost-effectiveness of a range of mental health interventions, in line with the development of Appendix 3 to the global action plan fo...r the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases 2013–2020.
WHO-CHOICE is a programme that helps countries to identify priorities based on health impact and cost-effectiveness. It can be applied to a wide range of strategies relevant to policies affecting health outcomes. All options are compared to a common comparator, a null scenario in which the impacts of currently implemented interventions are removed, thereby enabling comparison of interventions across geographical areas and aspects of health.
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Menstruation is a natural fact of life and a monthly occurrence for 1.8 billion girls and women of reproductive age. Yet millions of menstruators across the world are denied the right to manage their monthly menstrual cycle in a dignified, healthy w...ay. Girls and women with disabilities face even greater challenges in managing their menstruation hygienically and with dignity, often facing a double stigma due to both social norms around gender and menstruation and having a disability. This tip sheet offers a framework for supporting menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) and practical entry points for meeting the needs of menstruators with disabilities.
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The framework sets out a response to current mental health challenges arising from the negative impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on population mental health and well-being. The EFAMH provid...es a coherent basis for intensified efforts to mainstream, promote and safeguard mental well-being as an integral element of COVID-19 response and recovery; to counter the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health conditions;
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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 ...medbox">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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Drawing light from the pandemic: A new strategy for health and sustainable development (2021)
Available in English, French, German and Russian
According to the latest available estimates, more than 1 in 7 adolescents aged 10–19 is estimated to live with a diagnosed mental disorder globally. Almost 46,000 adolescents die from suicide each year, among the top five causes of death for their age group. Meanwhile, wide gaps persist between me...ntal health needs and mental health funding. The report finds that about 2 per cent of government health budgets are allocated to mental health spending globally.
The full report , excecutive summary, brief reports are available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic athttps://www.unicef.org/reports/state-worlds-children-2021?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=media&utm_campaign=sowc-web
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According to the latest available estimates, more than 1 in 7 adolescents aged 10–19 is estimated to live with a diagnosed mental disorder globally. Almost 46,000 adolescents die from suicide each year, among the top five causes of death for their age group. Meanwhile, wide gaps persist between me...ntal health needs and mental health funding. The report finds that about 2 per cent of government health budgets are allocated to mental health spending globally.
The full report , excecutive summary, brief reports are available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic athttps://www.unicef.org/reports/state-worlds-children-2021?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=media&utm_campaign=sowc-web
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