The COVID-19 pandemic is causing untold fear and suffering for older people across the world. As of 26 April, the virus itself has already taken the lives of some 193,710 people, and fatality rates
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for those over 80 years of age is five times the global average. As the virus spreads rapidly to developing countries, likely overwhelming health and social protection systems, the mortality rate for older persons could climb even higher.
Less visible but no less worrisome are the broader effects: health care denied for conditions unrelated to COVID-19; neglect and abuse in institutions and care facilities; an increase in poverty and unemployment; the dramatic impact on well-being and mental health; and the trauma of stigma and discrimination.
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Countries are making progress toward the global goal of 95% of people living with HIV knowing their status by 2025. However, considerable gaps remain in achieving these goals globally. Men in high HIV burden settings and men from key populations in
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all settings are consistently less likely to know their HIV status than women. Globally, 78% of men ages 15 years and older who are living with HIV are aware of their HIV status, compared with 86% of women with HIV of these ages.
Offering HIV testing services, including HIV self-testing, at formal and informal workplaces has emerged as an effective, acceptable and feasible approach for reaching men. A 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO) policy brief provides key guiding principles for HIVST implementation at workplaces. Building on the 2018 policy brief, this brief captures early experience with HIVST implementation at workplaces and discusses emerging approaches of sustainable financing that can be adapted for HIV self-testing at workplaces.
The primary audiences for this policy brief are ministries of health and labour, national HIV programmes, employers’ organizations, workers’ organizations (labour unions), enterprises, implementing partners, including civil society organizations, and health insurance agencies.
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In the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic response, WHO identifies young people as a priority target audience with specific concerns, experiences and behaviours. This policy brie
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f provides relevant insights from behavioural evidence and a set of behavioural considerations for those promoting COVID-19 preventive behaviours among young people. Designers of programmes and initiatives targeting youth may find it helpful to refer to the youth-specific barriers and drivers identified in this policy brief and to prioritize these for testing when planning initiatives targeted at young people.
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BMC Health Services Research 14(1):42 · January 2014
The objective of this international comparative study is to describe and compare the mental health policies in seven countries of Eastern Europe that share their common communist history: Bul
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garia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.
The burden of totalitarian history still influences many areas of social and economic life, which also has to be taken into account in mental health policy. We may observe that after twenty years of health reforms and reforms of health reforms, the transition of the mental health systems still continues. In spite of many reform efforts in the past, a balance of community and hospital mental health services has not been achieved in this part of the world yet.
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Refugee 1 men and boys can be subjected to sexual and gender‑based violence (SGBV). Survivors have specific health, psychosocial, legal, and safe
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ty needs, but often find it hard to discuss their experience and access the support they need. It is important that UNHCR and its partners take steps to address these difficulties. The objectives of this note are to emphasise that programmes on sexual and gender‑based violence need to include men and boys, and to provide guidance on how to access survivors, facilitate reporting, provide protection and deliver essential medical, legal and social services. 2
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Since independence (1961) the Government through the Department of Social welfare has been providing services to people with disabilities without a comprehensive policy. The adoption of the National
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Policy on Disability (NPD) is the outcome of many years of consultations among disability stakeholders.
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This WHO Guidance Note advocates for a comprehensive approach to cervical cancer prevention and control and is aimed at senior policy makers
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and programme managers. It describes the need to deliver effective interventions across the female life course from childhood through to adulthood. These include community education, social mobilization, HPV vaccination, screening, treatment and palliative care. It outlines the complementary strategies for comprehensive cervical cancer prevention and control, and highlights collaboration across national health programmes (particularly immunization, reproductive health, cancer control and adolescent health), organizations and partners.
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Mental health issues are usually given very low priority in health service policies. Although this is changing, African countries are still confronted with so many problems caused by communicable diseases and malnutrition that they have not woken up
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to the impact of mental disorders. Every country must formulate a mental health policy based on its own social and cultural realities. Such policies must take into account the scope of mental health problems, provide proven and affordable interventions, safeguard patients’ rights, and ensure equity.
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Humanitarian emergencies result in a breakdown of critical health-care services and often make vulnerable communities dependent on external agencies for care. In resource-constrained settings, this may occur against a backdrop of extreme poverty, ma
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lnutrition, insecurity, low literacy and poor infrastructure. Under these circumstances, providing food, water and shelter and limiting communicable disease outbreaks become primary concerns. Where effective and safe vaccines are available to mitigate the risk of disease outbreaks, their potential deployment is a key consideration in meeting emergency health needs. Ethical considerations are crucial when deciding on vaccine deployment. Allocation of vaccines in short supply, target groups, delivery strategies, surveillance and research during acute humanitarian emergencies all involve ethical considerations that often arise from the tension between individual and common good. The authors lay out the ethical issues that policy-makers need to bear in mind when considering the deployment of mass vaccination during humanitarian emergencies, including beneficence (duty of care and the rule of rescue), non-maleficence, autonomy and consent, and distributive and procedural justice
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Social network-based HIV testing is an approach for engaging sexual and drug injecting partners and soc
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ial contacts of key population members with HIV and of those who are HIV-negative and at ongoing risk in voluntary HTS.
By addressing people’s confidentiality concerns and broadening the reach to social contacts, social network-based HIV testing approaches can improve the acceptability of partner services among key populations and so reach more people who may not otherwise test for HIV. WHO now recommends that social network-based HIV testing approaches can be offered for key populations
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Accessed on 31.03.2023
COUNTDOWN Nigeria has applied a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach to improve equity of Mass Administration of Medicines (MAM) and inform Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD)
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policy through an enhanced community engagement strategy. A situational analysis conducted in 2016 identified community engagement as a
bottleneck to achieving equitable coverage of MAM within different and emerging contexts (border, migrant, rural and urban) of Nigeria, related to programmatic, social, political and environmental changes over time See: (Dean et al., 2019), (Oluwole et al., 2019) and (Adekeye et al., 2019)
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WHO and UNICEF have established recommendations for breastfeeding practices. Although every mother decides how to feed her child, this decision is strongly influenced by economic, environmental, social
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and political factors. The Global Breastfeeding Scorecard analyzes indicators on how countries protect, promote and support breastfeeding through funding or policies.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the challenges countries face for maintaining their COVID-19 response while addressing competing public health challenges, conflicts, climate change and economic crises.
It remains critical for nation
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al programmes to continue to offer testing for COVID-19 in line with three main objectives: reduce morbidity and mortality through linkage to prompt care and treatment, reduce onward transmission and track the evolution of the epidemic and the virus
itself.
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Policy Brief, Updated in March 2017
Key messages
• Ensuring access to HIV prevention and critical services for non-disclosed men who have sex with men (MSM) remains a priority in Myanmar
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• Internet, social media and mobile applications can be important means for reaching these men with HIV prevention messages and referral to services.
• Strategies to protect individual privacy, confidentiality and security are essential for making mobile phone and web-based health services available, accessible and acceptable to MSM.
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In the time of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), sex and drug use will continue, regardless of physical distancing orders and policies. People who previously met in community gathering venues such as
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bars and clubs may now meet in different sites, ones that are “hidden” or less accessible. This, in turn, may hinder efforts to reach them with prevention interventions, such as condoms, lubricants, and needle–syringe programmes. With the widespread loss of livelihood and fewer employment opportunities, transactional sex, sex work and sexual exploitation may increase. Anxiety about the pandemic and personal vulnerability also may lead to some disruption in community cohesion, and to changes in the social and sexual norms that influence behaviour.
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This website provides practical tools and advice for programme planners and policy makers to run inclusive
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social protection programmes, especially in low and middle income countries. It draws on the findings of a study conducted in 2014 in Peru and Tanzania by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Technische Universität München, together with the national partners, SODIS and CRONICAS in Peru, and REPOA in Tanzania
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This document presents a policy to guide and support Member States of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Pan American Sanitary Bur
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eau (PASB) in their technical cooperation to improve mental health as a priority for advancing health, social, and economic development in the Region in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
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