Q2: In individuals with psychotic disorders (including schizophrenia), is the use of two or more antipsychotic medications concurrently more effective and safer than the use of one antipsychotic only?
Effective risk communication requires the alignment of complex factors including trust between the communicator and the audience(s), audience involvement, and emotional responses to risk. Risk communication is especially challenging now as new media... changes the landscape for both
communicators and their audiences. Viewed as a discussion of the most important findings for risk communicators and managers, this report delves into research-driven recommendations for effective risk communication practices.
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This discussion guide is designed to assist individuals and
agencies working toward developing trauma-informed
approaches to service delivery. It describes how common
traumatic experiences are for indiv...iduals accessing health
and social services, and it provides information to help service
providers recognize the adaptations people make to cope with
trauma. Trauma awareness is a foundation for developing
trauma-informed services, which integrate knowledge about
trauma into policies, procedures, and practices. Traumainformed
services actively seek to avoid re-traumatization and
have been shown to improve client engagement, retention, and
outcomes. This guide includes practice examples, suggested
resources, and sample questions to stimulate further discussion.
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This manual provides information and guidance for individuals concerned with the mental health needs of children who experience major disasters. This background, training, and experience will vary and may include health and mental health professiona...ls, professional and paraprofessional social service personnel, school and daycare personnel, clergy, volunteers, and parents.
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Good mental health is integral to human health and well being. A person’s mental health and many common mental disorders are shaped by various social, economic, and physical environments operating at different stages of life. Risk factors for many... common mental disorders are heavily associated with social inequalities, whereby the greater the inequality the higher the inequality in risk.
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Social distancing is an action taken to minimise contact with other individuals; social distancing measures comprise one category of non-pharmaceutical countermeasures (NPCs)1 aimed at reducing disease transmission and thereby also reducing pressure... on health services.
This document builds upon existing ECDC documents, including guidelines for the use of non-pharmaceutical measures to delay and mitigate the impact of 2019-nCoV, a rapid risk assessment: outbreak of novel coronavirus disease – 5th update, a technical report on the use of evidence in decision-making during public health emergencies, and a guidance document on community engagement for public health events caused by communicable disease threats in the EU/EEA.
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The Coronavirus is spreading globally. How can individuals, communities and humanitarian actors best respond to the COVID-19 outbreak? How can the Sphere Handbook guide our response?
These guidelines are available in different languages
13 July 2021
The module provides an overview of factors to consider when monitoring the safety of COVID-19 vaccines administered to pregnant and breastfeeding women. It describes how national routine AEFI surveillance should be adapted to cater fo...r this specific group of population using both passive and active surveillance methods. Specific considerations and limitations of each method are provided as well as tools for implementation.
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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 affected but also on their families and the communities t...hey 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.
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Updated 8 June 2021. Coronavirus is spreading globally. How can individuals, communities, humanitarian actors, local and national authorities best respond to uphold the rights of all affected people?
This brief considers the rationale for shielding individuals at high risk of severe disease or death from COVID-19 in low- and middleincome countries. It provides an overview of proposed approaches to shielding, discusses the categories of ...ss="attribute-to-highlight medbox">individuals who may be identified for shielding, and outlines the likely difficulties of these measures and ways to mitigate them.
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The cardiovascular disease continuum begins with risk factors such as diabetes mellitus (DM), progresses to vasculopathy and myocardial dysfunction, and finally ends with cardiovascular death. Diabetes is associated with a 2- to 4-fold increased ris...k for heart failure (HF). Moreover, HF patients with DM have a worse prognosis than those without DM. Diabetes can cause myocardial ischemia via micro- and macrovasculopathy and can directly exert deleterious effects on the myocardium. Hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, and insulin resistance can cause alterations in vascular homeostasis. Then, reduced nitric oxide and increased reactive oxygen species levels favor inflammation leading to atherothrombotic progression and myocardial dysfunction. The classification, diagnosis, and treatment of HF for a patient with and without DM remain the same. Until now, drugs targeting neurohumoral and metabolic pathways improved mortality and morbidity in HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Therefore, all HFrEF patients should receive guideline-directed medical therapy. By contrast, drugs modulating neurohumoral activity did not improve survival in HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) patients. Trials investigating whether sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors are effective in HFpEF are on-going. This review will summarize the epidemiology, pathophysiology, and treatment of HF in diabetes.
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4th edition.
This report – now in its fourth edition – analyses the barriers and factors affecting access to treatment regimens for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), including new and repurposed drugs. We provide detailed pricing profiles of... key DR-TB drugs, using manufacturer responses to standardised questionnaires and the Global TB Drug Facility website.
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Kenya has great potential for enhancing education for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The fact that it has recognized the need to care for learners with special needs is commendable. In comparison to many African countries, Kenya and Nig...eria are ahead in developing programs for special education in institutions of higher learning, and in starting schools and units for special education. However, a legal mandate is still required as it would seal many loopholes that currently exist. Without it, the assessment of individual with intellectual disabilities cannot be administered correctly and professionally. In this article, the authors present a coherent account on various aspects related to learners with intellectual disabilities in Kenya. No doubt, the issues and challenges identified call for attention by not only the government of Kenya but also those interested in improving the status of learners with intellectual disabilities.
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Purpose of review: We review recent evidence regarding risk factors for childhood posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and treatment outcome studies from 2010 to 2012 including dissemination studies, early intervention studies and studies involving ...preschool children.
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Shielding is a term used to describe the protection of individuals at high risk of severe COVID-19 illness by separating them from the general population.
In its report from 2014, the Working Group outlines the various factors influencing vaccine acceptance or refusal, and what can be done to create social norms around vaccine acceptance and to encourage the general public regarding the necessity of v...accination.
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The purpose of this document is to offer guidance to Member States on quarantine measures for individuals in the context of COVID-19. It is intended for those responsible for establishing local or national policy for quarantine of ...bute-to-highlight medbox">individuals, and adherence to infection prevention and control measures.
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Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) has immense benefits for individual users, as well as society at large, through improvements to physical health, air quality, the environment, climate change, personal finance, accessibility, mobility and the empowermen...t of vulnerable groups.
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Children with disabilities are particularly vulnerable in humanitarian settings, yet they are often not able to access the services and protection they need. While multiple factors create these barriers, a major cause is how data about children with... disabilities is collected and mapped. Data collection processes often exclude or underrepresent the views of children with disabilities and thier caretakers. When the experiences of children with disabilities and their caretakers are not defined and collected, they become excluded from mainstreamed protective services, which are meant to serve all children. Children with disabilities also do not get the specialised interventions they need.
This guidance note explores how to use qualitative methods to create more robust assessment processes to ensure more effective programming and services for children with disabilities. This note provides promising practices for engaging with children with disabilities and includes sample tools that can be tailored to fit the needs of a particular assessment process. The note also explores the importance of thoughtful cross-sectoral responses so that children with disabilities, and their families, are carefully considered in areas like water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), education, health, and nutrition, and therefore receive the holistic support they need and deserve.
This note is intended for a broad audience of relevant child protection actors, including practitioners, coordination groups, researchers, and donors. The information is not limited to one type of humanitarian setting, geographic region, or culture. As a result, the practices and guidance should be adapted to each specific context, ideally in partnership with well-informed local actors, such as representatives from local organisations for persons with disabilities.
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