The OECD Mental Health and Work Policy Framework - Integrated services for sustainable growth

Mental health is an important driver of labour market outcomes and thus affects economic growth and future development. If labour markets are to function well, it is important that policy makers address the interplay between mental health and work, as they are slowly coming to recognise that they have long neglected an issue that is critical to people’s well-being and for contributing to sustainable economic growth. This report discusses which aspects of mental health and employment interventions must be addressed to push policy making in the right direction, namely: when to intervene, how to intervene or what to do, and who needs to intervene. It draws on policy examples from nine OECD countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, UK), discussing why policy must make those changes and how it can achieve them. The examples are rich in nature and, taken together, provide a promising and ...

A strategic approach to Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent health (RMNCH+A) in India

India’s National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) launched its RMNCH+A approach in 2013, which essentially looks to address the major causes of mortality among women and children as well as the delays in accessing and utilizing health care and services. The RMNCH+A strategic approach has been developed to provide an understanding of ‘continuum of care’ to ensure equal focus on various life stages. Priority interventions for each thematic area have been included in this to ensure that the linkages between them are contextualized to the same and consecutive life stage. It also introduces new initiatives like the use of Score Card to track the performance, National Iron + Initiative to address the issue of anemia across all age groups and the Comprehensive Screening and Early interventions for defects at birth , diseases and deficiencies among children and adolescents. The RMNCH+A appropriately directs the States to focus their efforts on ...

Supporting integration through new roles and working across boundaries

In 2015, The King’s Fund was commissioned by NHS Employers and the Local Government Association to produce an independent report on boundary-spanning roles to support integrated care. The work aimed to identify examples of new roles being developed and an understanding of the evidence to support these roles, including impact, features of success and key challenges.

The key findings of the report are: 

• Where new roles have emerged, they have mainly done so due to developments in practice or to fill gaps in provision.
• There is a lack of evidence on the cost-effectiveness of new roles and the extent to which they improve patient outcomes.
• There are a number of ways in which integrated care is being delivered without the explicit need for new boundary-spanning roles.
• Engaging staff from the outset and building on the existing skills of the workforce can overcome cultural barriers between professionals and organisations to ...

Progress on integrated care

This year´s conference of the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC16) in Barcelona attracted over 1000 delegates and participants. Shortly afterwards, the World Health assembly adopted a global framework on integrated people-centred health services develope by the WHO, and an alliance of organisations created a European call for action to implement the framework at EU level. 

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Coming Problems in Behavioral Health Care

People with serious mental health and substance abuse disorders remain among the most neglected stigmatized in our health and social services systems. Many with profoundi disabilities are impoverished, are unable to work and at risk of homelessness.

Fortunatelly, the  Affordable Care Act (ACA) and expansions and implementation of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity of 2008 provided a significant turning point in addressing these challenges vital to the nation´s health. 

Reimagining community services: making the most of our assets

The purpose of this research was to understand the current state of community services and to explore how the health and care systems needs to change to enable these to meet the needs of the population now and in the future

Tuberculosis, HIV, and viral hepatitis diagnostics in eastern Europe and central Asia: high time for integrated and people-centred services

The international medical journal, The Lancet, has published an article demonstrating the benefits of integrated and people-centred services in responding to the rise of HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and viral hepatitis in eastern European and central Asian countries of the WHO European Region.

Integrated older people care and advanced practice nursing: an evidence-based review.

The world's population is aging rapidly. This is a fact, and the demand for services adapted to this new reality is increasingly necessary. The World Health Organization has proposed an integrative strategy centered on people. Here present a systematic review of strategies that address the care of older adults with the integrated care-centered approach to people.

Facilitators and barriers to professional nurses implementing integrated services in urban primary health care clinics in Kavango East region, Namibia

The World Health Organization (WHO) has advocated for the implementation of people-centred and integrated health services. Although there is growing evidence of integration’s benefits for sexual and reproductive health, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and rights, health services face tremendous resource constraints when it comes to integrating these services.