This policy brief has been developed in response to the contemporary challenge of antibiotic resistance (ABR). ABR poses a formidable threat to global health and sustainable development. It is... now increasingly recognized that the systematic neglect of cultural factors is one of the biggest obstacles to achieving better health outcomes and better standards of living worldwide. Using a cultural contexts of health approach, the policy brief explores the centrality of culture to the challenge of ABR. The brief examines how the prescription and use of antibacterial medicines, the transmission of resistance, and the regulation and funding of research are influenced by cultural, social and commercial, as well as biological and technological factors. The brief moves beyond the ready equation of culture with individual behaviours and demonstrates how culture serve as an enabler of health and provide new possibilities for change.
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The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is the lead UN agency working to further gender equality and women’s empowerment in Sri Lanka. We are pleased to be a part of the joint effort with the Ministry of ...ox">Health to develop the first ‘Standard Operating Procedures on sexual and gender-based violence for first-contact-point healthcare providers’.
These operating procedures were developed alongside the ‘National guidelines on sexual and gender-based violence’, which aims to strengthen Sri Lanka’s health systems response to survivors of violence. We are grateful to the British High Commission in Colombo for their support in developing these guidelines and procedures as they mark an important milestone in creating a safer Sri Lanka for all women and girls. UNFPA is proud to be a part of this journey, and we stand ready to provide continued assistance to the Government of Sri Lanka and all key stakeholders to ensure women and girls receive essential services that support their safety, well-being and access to justice and to create a violence-free Sri Lanka.
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"This is the final report of the six-year collaboration between the WHO Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse and the Gulbenkian Global M...ental Health Platform, an initiative of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation aimed at reducing the global burden of mental health through the development and application of evidence and good practices to global mental health."
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The World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing the second edition of its Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA!) guidance. The document aims to equip governments to respon...d to the health and well-being challenges, opportunities and needs of adolescents.
The guidance provides the latest available data on adolescent health and well-being. It also outlines an updated list of core indicators that data should be collected on. Globally, road injury was the top cause of death for adolescent males in 2019. Among female adolescents, the leading causes of death were diarrhoeal diseases among the younger group (10-14 years) and tuberculosis (TB) in the older group (15-19 years).
Over the last 20 years, mortality rates have declined among adolescents globally, with the largest decline in older (15–19 years) adolescent girls. For non-fatal diseases, the burden has not improved over the past two decades, with the main causes of ill health in this category being: mental health conditions (depressive and anxiety disorders, childhood behavioural disorders), iron deficiency anaemia, skin diseases and migraine.
Adolescent well-being depends on a range of factors, including healthy food, education, life skills and employability, connectedness, feeling valued by society, safe and supportive environments, resilience, and the freedom to make choices. To take an appropriately holistic approach, the guidance outlines how to take crosscutting action to support adolescent health and well-being, with mutually reinforcing interventions across sectors, such as health, education, social protection, and telecommunications. Targeted efforts are also required to engage adolescents, as they trust health systems less than adults do and are especially vulnerable to modern-day trends, like online bullying and gaming.
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The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, a collaborative endeavour of the World
Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank and the Harvard School of Public ...x">Health,
drew the attention of the international health community to the burden of neurological
disorders and many other chronic conditions. This study found that the burden of neurological
disorders was seriously underestimated by traditional epidemiological and health
statistical methods that take into account only mortality rates but not disability rates. The
GBD study showed that over the years the global health impact of neurological disorders
had been underestimated.
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First Edition~ This self advocacy toolkit for persons with mental, neurological and substance abuse disorders, developed by Basic Needs and CBM, is the end product of an action research intervent...ion that tracked and documented processes for Self Advocacy in low resourced communities of Uganda. This toolkit presents simple and easy to apply principals and is a replica of good practices identified in the Consumer empowerment project implemented by BasicNeeds UK in Uganda between April 2005 and March 2008.
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Updated May 2017
This document is meant to respond to the questions:
■ What health interventions should the child receive and when should s/he receive it?
■ What ...s="attribute-to-highlight medbox">health behaviours should a mother/caregiver practise (or not practise)?
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Best practice guidelines are systematically developed statements designed to assist nurses working in partnership with persons and their families to make decisions about health care ...ribute-to-highlight medbox">and services (Field & Lohr, 1990). This nursing Best Practice Guideline (BPG) is intended to replace the RNAO BPGs Screening for Delirium, Dementia and Depression in Older Adults (2010b) and Caregiving Strategies for Older Adults with Delirium, Dementia and Depression (2010a).
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Women and girls are paying the price of the war in Yemen – Humanitarian actors must increase the priority given to women and girls’ needs, with specific attention to GBV prevention ...attribute-to-highlight medbox">and response, and reproductive health services
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Work can be beneficial or harmful to mental health depending on
the circumstances. If a person has a mental health problem, being
at work in a supportive workplace can assist in their recovery. Th...e
level of support needed will fluctuate, as the symptoms of most
mental health problems come and go over time.
Providing mental health first aid when a worker is showing the
early signs and symptoms of a mental health problem is important,
as it can assist the person to return to their usual performance
quickly. Failing to provide mental health first
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The below guidance has been designed to ensure the care of children affected by COVID-19 due to either the child or caregiver requiring medical care in the home, community or health facility, it serves to
The purpose of this guide is to offer recommendations for improving the implementation of non‑pharmacological public health measures during the COVID-19 response and compliance with these measures... by population groups in situations of vulnerability. This requires determining the main barriers to implementing these measures so that we can identify the groups and territories most affected during the different phases of the pandemic. With this objective in mind––and within the framework of an equity, human rights, and diversity approach––, policies, strategies, and interventions to accompany the implementation and flexibilization of the measures are recommended to ensure that no one is left behind.
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Palliative care has been shown to provide significant and diverse benefits for patients with serious, complex,or life-limiting health problem.
Jamison DT, Gelband H, Horton S, Jha P, Laxminarayan R..., Mock CN, Nugent R., editors. Disease Control Priorities, 3rd Edition,
Volume 9: Improving Health and Reducing Poverty. Washington DC: World Bank 2018. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-0527-1
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The purpose of adding the books to the website of MCAI for download, is to make this life-saving, up-to-date information available to all who need it. Fill in a short registration field and you can download the pdf-files.
If you work in a hospita...l in a low income country - providing free care - you are probably intitled to FREE copies of these books. MCAI will send them to you, all you have to do is to read our Flyer and fill in the request form.
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This revised trainer's guide contains a prototype training schedule for four days. Teaching and learning strategies are highly interactive, using participatory and experiential approach. Training ou...tcomes include developing skills in assessment of clients for risk factors; conduct basic screening procedures and interpreting the results; holding health education sessions on risk factor modification; promoting healthy lifestyle; and mobilizing communities. The manual is divided into six modules.
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This guide is designed to accompany the training module, Communicating with health workers about COVID-19 vaccination. It provides detailed explanations, resources and guidance to accompany the slid...es in the training module and support those implementing the training. It is intended for training facilitators or trainers of trainers (ToTs) who will be conducting the training at the country level either face-to-face or online with a group of participants. Facilitators can use this guidance document to help them adapt the training content to their local context and facilitate discussion with training participants. Facilitators are encouraged to have this guide available to them as a tool during the training session.
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UNFPA supports the Youth Health Line (YHL), launched in 2012, as a nationwide, youth friendly health service to provide information and counseling ...for adolescents and youth on issues related to their health and reproductive health. The YHL is providing a vital service to young people around the country who are dialing the toll-free number ‘120’ from any phone to speak to a professionally trained youth health counselor. These conversations are confidential, free of judgment, and do not require parental consent. The average reach of the YHL per year is 120,000 adolescents and youth served by full-time male and female counselors.
This Standard Operating Procedure for YHL provides a critical resource for the administration and day-to-day management. The SOP is designed to provide direction to all staff responsible for carrying out the administrative and managerial functions of the YHL. The SOP is intended to guide UNFPA Implementing Partners in running the YHL with a consistent approach to ensure improved access and quality of services provided to adolescents and youth in Afghanistan.
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Our goal at Voices for Georgia’s Children is to help decision-makers craft and implement policies that ensure Georgia’s children grow up to be healthy, educated ...ht medbox">and productive citizens. To that end, we have developed a comprehensive policy agenda focused on early childhood, child health and disconnected youth, which, if followed, can effectively prevent and offset some of the damaging experiences faced by our children. Many of our recommendations are aligned with those included in this policy brief.
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Mental health is critically important to everyone, everywhere. All over the world, mental health needs are high but responses are insufficient and ...inadequate. The World mental health report: transforming mental health for all is designed to inspire and inform better mental health for everyone everywhere. Drawing on the latest evidence available, showcasing examples of good practice from around the world, and voicing people’s lived experience, it highlights why and where change is most needed and how it can best be achieved. It calls on all stakeholders to work together to deepen the value and commitment given to mental health, reshape the environments that influence mental health, and strengthen the systems that care for mental health.
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Mental health problem is one of the growing major public health issues in the Asia Pacific region. It contributes to the high number of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), morbidity ..."attribute-to-highlight medbox">and mortality in the region. It is expected that leading mental health problems will occur in the low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) and majority of the countries which comes under this category are in the Asia Pacific region. In addition, mental health problem hamper the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly MDG 1, MDG 4 and MDG 5. The most common mental health problems in the region are depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, suicidal behaviour and substance abuse disorder. Several modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors were identified for the cause of these major mental health issues. Interventions, programmes and policies need to be designed in order to curb mental health problems at all levels.
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