[Updated 2015]
Scoping Question: In adults with acute convulsive seizures in first-level care or in the community (when no IV access is available), which antiepileptic medications produce benefit
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s and/or harm when compared to comparator?
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This NCEPOD report highlights the quality of mental health and physical health care for patients
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aged 18 years or older with a significant mental disorder who are admitted to a general hospital. The report takes a critical look at areas where the care of patients might have been improved. Remediable factors have also been identified in the clinical and the organisational care of these patients.
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Community-based approaches to Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (CB MHPSS) in emergencies are based on the understanding that communities
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can be drivers for their own care and change and should be meaningfully involved in all stages of MHPSS responses. Emergency-affected people are first and foremost to be viewed as active participants in improving individual and collective well-being, rather than as passive recipients of services that are designed for them by others. Thus, using community-based MHPSS approaches facilitates families, groups and communities to support and care for others in ways that encourage recovery and resilience. These approaches also contribute to restoring and/or strengthening those collective structures and systems essential to daily life and well-being. An understanding of systems should inform community-based approaches to MHPSS programmes for both individuals and communities.
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The full-scale invasion of Ukraine has caused a deterioration in the level of access to health-care
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services and medicines in the country, particularly for people living in regions close to the front line and areas that are not partially or fully controlled by the Government of Ukraine, and for people who have been internally displaced. Cost and time constraints involved in getting to and from health facilities, as well as limited transportation options were the main barriers to accessing essential health-care services. At the same time, the findings show that the country’s health system remains resilient and that overall access to health services is fairly high.This report is based on data collected through a quantitative cross-sectional survey of self-reported health needs of the general population in Ukraine. It presents results of the first round survey conducted in September 2022 and could help to address the specific health-care needs of the population groups concerned.
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Our spiritual health profoundly impacts our physical health, well-being, and quality of life. Just as medical professionals care for our bodies and
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minds, spiritual care practitioners care for our spirits. The increasing need for spiritual care makes these practitioners even more crucial. However, many of us have limited access to quality, professional spiritual care. At times of struggle, this lack of spiritual care can have a negative impact on our health and well-being.Investigators and researchers are creating a growing body of evidence for the innumerable benefits of professional spiritual care, yet many people still do not have a lot of accurate information about these practitioners. To create this publication, the six largest healthcare chaplaincy organizations in North America collaborated to share the facts about spiritual care and practitioners’ roles, training, and standards.By providing evidence and dispelling myths, the thousands of spiritual care practitioners represented by these organizations hope to increase access to spiritual care for the benefit of all.
accessed July 2020
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Countries reported disruptions in all health-care settings. In more than half of countries surveyed, many people are still unable to
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access care at the primary care and community care levels. Significant disruptions have also been reported in emergency care, particularly concerning given the impact on people with urgent health needs. Thirty-six per cent of countries reported disruptions to ambulance services; 32% to 24-hour emergency room services; and 23% to emergency surgeries.
Elective surgeries have also been disrupted in 59% of countries, which can have accumulating consequences on health and well-being as the pandemic continues. Disruptions to rehabilitative care and palliative care were also reported in around half of the countries surveyed.
Major barriers to health service recovery include pre-existing health systems issues which have been exacerbated by the pandemic as well as decreased demand for care.
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This Global Competency Standards sets the benchmark for the health workforce in providing equality of care to refugees and migrants. Refugee and mi
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grant populations are highly diverse, with significant variation in life experiences, health needs and access to health care. The standards described outline expected behaviours of health workers in delivering quality care to refugees and migrants and can be used to inform the outcomes of education programmes aligned with standards for care. The Competency Standards is designed to provide a foundation to support the development of competency-based curricula tailored to the local context and for health workers to achieve a minimum level of competence. The importance of person-centred, culturally responsive care is emphasized in the nine competency standards, which recognize the need for health workers to be trained, supported and empowered within strong health systems
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Primary care health centers and providers who care for individuals with hypertension and cardiovascular disease have an important role
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to play in ensuring continued access to care, reducing the risk of coronavirus infection, and appropriately managing people with these co-morbidities who acquire COVID-19. This guidance includes these considerations
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This open access book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related heal
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th impacts that range from heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and chronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being.
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The EHSP in Botswana seeks to attain universal coverage of high-quality package of essential health services. The EHSP is an integrated collection of cost-effective interventions, promotive, prevent
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ive, curative, and rehabilitative, that address the main diseases, injuries and risk factors that affect the population. The EHSP has two key purposes:
1) Provide a standardized package of basic services which forms the core of service delivery in all primary health care facilities
2) Promote a redistribution of health services by providing equitable access, especially in underserved areas, population, etc.
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A practical handbook. This Health Cluster Guide (2nd edition, 2020) provides practical advice on how WHO, Health Cluster Coordinators and partners can work together during a humanitarian crisis
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to achieve the aims of reducing avoidable mortality, morbidity and disability, and restoring the delivery of and equitable access to preventive and curative health care.
It highlights key principles of humanitarian health action and how coordination and joint efforts among health and other sector actors can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of health interventions and promote better health outcomes. It draws on Inter-Agency Standing Committee and other expert guidance and includes lessons from field experience in acute and protracted crises.
The coordination principles and practice presented in Health Cluster Guide are equally valid for coordinators and members of health sector groups that seek to achieve effective health action in countries where the cluster approach has not been formally adopted.
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The Policy Guidelines and Service Standards for National Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme document outlines the steps on how to offer and deliver services. Improving quality of
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care is critical to improving clients' health status as well as increasing access to, and utilization of Sexual and Reproductive Health services. Service Standards and Guidelines are intended to be used by programme managers, implementers, trainers, surpervisors, and service providers as a tool for delivering quality care measures.
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No publication year indicated
The specific objectives of the plan are to:
- Scale up evidence-based, cost effective interventions through effective strategies within a HSS approach and provide equitable coverage with quality.
- Reduce
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neonatal mortality by improved home-based newborn care, early identification of sick newborns and improved access to institutional newborn care of adequate quality.
- Reduce common childhood illness related mortality (due to pneumonia and diarrhoea in all areas and malaria in endemic areas) by improving key family and community practices, community-based early diagnosis and management and referral care for complicated cases.
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1 June 2020
Countries around the world are facing the challenge of increased demand for care of people with COVID-19, compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on movement that disrupt the delivery of
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health care for all conditions. Maintaining essential health services: operational guidance for the COVID-19 context recommends practical actions that countries can take at national, subregional and local levels to reorganize and safely maintain access to high-quality, essential health services in the pandemic context. It also outlines sample indicators for monitoring essential health services, and describes considerations on when to stop and restart services as COVID-19 transmission recedes and surges. This document expands on the content of pillar 9 of the COVID-19 strategic preparedness and response plan, supersedes the earlier Operational guidance for maintaining essential health services during an outbreak, and complements the recently-released Community-based health care, including outreach and campaigns, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is intended for decision-makers and managers at the national and subnational levels.
This is an update to COVID-19: Operational guidance for maintaining essential health services during an outbreak: Interim guidance, 25 March 2020
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This manual is a resource for Health Counselors working in Family Physician Clinics (FPC) as part of the MANAS program. This program is for common mental disorders like depressio
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n and anxiety seen in primary health care facilitieslike the FPC; since depression is the commonest disorder within this group of stress related mental health problems, in the manual we refer to these problems simply as ‘Depression’. The aim of the MANAS program is to integrate the recognition and treatment of Depression into routine primary health care.In the MANAS program, a range of effective treatments will be provided for patients with Depression. These treatments are matched to the individual requirements of patients to both improve the effectiveness of the treatments and to use the limited resources efficiently.
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Overwhelming evidence shows that a range of health concerns—mental illness, substance dependence, HIV/AIDS, and noncommunicable diseases—affect prisoners disproportionately. But, while incarcera
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tion poses risks to health—including inadequate nutrition and exposure to violence—prisons also present important opportunities to promote health and risk reduction that need to be tapped.
Some recommended remedies:
Health ministries, not ministries of justice, should manage health care responsibilities
Ensure that testing is available, but not mandatory, for infectious diseases
Make prison health part of the broader public health agenda
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The guideline on Drug misuse: opioid detoxification, commissioned by NICE and developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, sets out clear, evidence-based recommendations for hea
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lthcare staff on how to work with people who misuse opioids to significantly improve their treatment and care, and to deliver detoxification safely and effectively. Of the estimated 4 million people in the UK who use illicit drugs each year, approximately 50,000 misuse opioids (such as heroin, opium, morphine, codeine and methadone). Opioid misuse presents a considerable health risk and can lead to significant social problems. This NICE guideline is an important tool in helping people to overcome their drug problem.
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Every year, nearly 250 million people move across borders temporarily or permanently for a job opportunity, studying, to flee a crisis back home, or for other reasons. Another 750 million move for similar reasons within the borders of their countrie
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s. With the understanding that human mobility affects public health, and health affects human mobility and migrants, for decades, IOM has been providing critical health services to women, children and men on the move, while standing by governments for technical and operational support as needed. In 2019, in lower-income settings and in complex emergencies, along the world’s most perilous migration routes, in the aftermath of natural disasters or in response to disease outbreaks, IOM’s health teams have provided hundreds of thousands with primary health-care consultations, mental health and psychosocial support, sexual and reproductive health care, pre-migration health services, and much more.
This year, more than ever before, as the world reels from the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19, we have experienced that health is a cross-cutting component of overall human development and well-being.
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Countries around the world are facing the challenge of increased demand for care of people with COVID-19, compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on movement that disrupt the delivery of health
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care for all conditions. Maintaining essential health services: operational guidance for the COVID-19 context recommends practical actions that countries can take at national, subregional and local levels to reorganize and safely maintain access to high-quality, essential health services in the pandemic context. It also outlines sample indicators for monitoring essential health services, and describes considerations on when to stop and restart services as COVID-19 transmission recedes and surges.
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The report focuses on several key areas where health outcomes are falling short, and provides insight into ways in which countries can improve the situation for their children and adolescents. Areas in focus include
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mental health, overweight/obesity and adolescent risk-taking behaviour.
The report shows, for example, that:
- mental health remains a neglected subject – only one quarter of countries are collecting data on the number of children treated by a mental health professional;
- half of countries do not regulate the marketing of food to children, despite the fact that childhood obesity rates are high across the Region and physical activity rates are low;
- almost half of countries have no policy that affects the availability of unhealthy foods at school;
- 2 in 5 girls and 1 in 3 boys who are having sex do not protect themselves; and
one third of countries do not offer legal access to contraception without parental consent for those under 18 years of age.
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