This training guide applies a participatory approach, reflecting the considerable evidence that adults learn best by practicing and reflecting on their experiences. It thus emphasizes exercises to improve skills in counseling that support clients to adopt optimal nutrition practices. Women’s nutri...tion and infant feeding in the context of HIV are also addressed. Guidelines to link the prevention of malnutrition with treatment via the Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition are also included. It can also be conducted with nutrition managers to equip them to provide supportive supervision to health and community workers.
more
CATALYST DIALOGUE ON HEALTH FINANCING
Insights from a debate on how to increase funding for health and spend existing funds more effectively.
Catalyst Dialogue participants:
Christoph Benn, Direc...tor for Global Health Diplomacy, Joep Lange Institute • Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst • Tom Hart, Research Fellow, ODI • Lesley-Anne Long, President & CEO, Global Business Coalition for Health • Riaz Tanoli, CEO, Social Health Protection Initiative, Health Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
more
This guide presents a basis for understanding how diarrhoeal diseases are currently influenced by climate and weather, and may be further exacerbated by climate change. It is a technical guide on how to conduct a Vulnerability & Adaptation assessment for diarrhoeal diseases and climate change, and p...rovides guidance on how to:
identify populations and regions vulnerable to diarrhoeal diseases and the reasons for their vulnerability;
establish relevant baselines that can be analysed and monitored;
conduct analyses to project how diarrhoeal diseases may be impacted in the future due to climate change; and
identify appropriate responses to mitigate and monitor these risks over time.
more
This resource is the third in a series of online guides for promoting positive mental health across the lifespan. This resource provides health and social service providers (“practitioners”) wit...h current evidence-based approaches in the application of mental health promotion concepts and principles for refugees. It is intended to support practitioners, caregivers and others in incorporating best practice approaches to mental health promotion initiatives or programs directed toward refugees.
more
It highlights the numerous challenges to quality service provision, along with the organisation’s response to mental health needs, and recommendations for international and regional decision-makers including:
- Advocating and working towards men...tal health policies that support adequate funding for mental health care and government suppor
- Legislation to protect the rights of people with mental disorders and vulnerable communities
- Advocating for multi-year funding to support the sustainability of MHPSS programs
- Creating capacity building opportunities consistent with the IASC guidelines and supported with continuous supervision
more
Miscellaneous
Chapter J.4
Good Practices in Mental Health & Well-being
Conflict, in its active or latent forms, is everywhere. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that public health emergencies can strike any country at any time. Given the universality of and interconnections between conflict, humanitarian crises, a...nd public health emergencies, practitioners trained in one sector or the other are being called upon to understand how to navigate all of these emergencies at once.
more
According to WHO, around 22% of adults in conflict settings have mental health conditions.
This is almost triple to non-conflict settings. There is no generally accepted estimate for children but it is clear that children who are refugees, IDPs or ...who live in conflict settings have high levels of mental health issues.
more
In 2015, 5.9 million children under age five died (1). The major causes of child deaths globally are pneumonia, prematurity, intrapartum-related complications, neonatal sepsis, congenital anomalies, diarrhoea, injuries and malaria (2). Most of these diseases and conditions are at least partially cau...sed by the environment. It was estimated in 2012 that 26% of childhood deaths and 25% of the total disease burden in children under five could be prevented through the reduction of environmental risks such as air pollution, unsafe water, sanitation and inadequate hygiene or chemicals.
more
Forests, trees and green spaces, hereinafter ‘forests and trees’ for short, provide multiple goods and services that contribute to human health. These include medicines, nutritious foods and other non-wood forest products (NWFPs). Globally, at l...east 3.5 billion people use NWFPs, including medicinal plants, which are particularly important for vulnerable groups and Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs).
During periods of crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for forest products typically increases amongst these groups. Forests and trees also contribute to better health by playing a role in climate change
mitigation and adaptation, contributing to regulating the carbon cycle, but also moderating the micro-climate, filtering pollutants from the air and protecting settlements against the effects of extreme events such as droughts and flash floods.
more
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a continuous and robust impact on world health. The resulting COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating physical, mental and fiscal impact on the millions of people living with noncommunicable diseases (...NCDs), as they have a higher risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19. COVID-19 has been associated with an
excess in all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality beyond that related to the infection itself and its immediate consequences. Studies in the
United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA) have clearly shown increasing deaths from ischemic heart disease, stroke and hypertensive disease due to COVID-19. Overall, the impact has been greater in individuals with lower socioeconomic status, even in high income nations.
more
Mental health problems are common and cause great suffering to individuals and communities around the world. They have a significant impact not only on the physical and mental health of those affect...ed but also on their families and the communities they live in. At the same time, all communities have their own traditional mechanisms for support and contain a range wide of resources that can be helpful in preventing mental health conditions from developing, promoting positive mental health and supporting the recovery of people that are struggling with a mental health condition.
In the wider context, people living with a mental health condition are often excluded from their communities and experience various violations to their basic human rights (discrimination, violence, exclusion from employment opportunities). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the mean prevalence of global mental health disorders is 10.8% while the prevalence in emergency settings is 22.1% in any conflict-affected population.
During emergencies and crisis, the stigma, exclusion and discrimination towards people living with mental health conditions is often higher, which can cause isolation and protection issues. Communities can play a crucial role in promoting mental health as well as enhancing primary care and access. Their role is to help reduce mental health inequalities by providing community resources that connect people to community-based resources and by providing mental health education. This also helps to reduce the massive mental health treatment gap.
more
Interim practical manual supporting implementation of the WHO guidelines on core components of infection prevention and control programmes
This resource pack was developed for the country offices of the World Health Organization and national Public Health institutions, as an overview of the key information needed for advising their Mem...ber States in response to questions raised on human health due to influenza outbreaks or detections in animals. It assembles the available information from WHO, FAO and WOAH, on recommendations and guidelines on influenza that might be relevant to a country experiencing detections or outbreaks of influenza in animals or facing suspicion of human infections with animal-origin influenza viruses. This resource pack updates the information provided in the Summary of Key Information Practical to Countries Experiencing Outbreaks of A(H5N1) and Other Subtypes of Avian Influenza, published in 2016. Additionally, the scope of this current document was broadened to address the risks to public health from all animal influenza viruses, not only avian influenza. Links to existing resources were updated and new resources were added where available.
more
A guide to facilitating community-managed disaster risk reduction in the Horn of Africa.
This manual describes how to help communities implement disaster risk reduction activities. It was written for development workers and community-based organizations in the Horn of Africa, but practitioners can ...use it to implement activities around the world
more