IPCHS. Integrated People-Centred Health Services

Contents

Contents tagged: middle-income countries

June 1, 2015 Publication

Scale up of services for mental health in low-income and middle-income countries.

Mental disorders constitute a huge global burden of disease, and there is a large treatment gap, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. One response to this issue has been the call to scale up mental health services. We assess progress in scaling up such services worldwide using a systematic review of literature and a survey of key national stakeholders in mental health. The large number of programmes identified suggested that successful strategies can be adopted to overcome barriers to scaling up, such as the low priority accorded to mental health, scarcity of human and financial resources, and difficulties in changing poorly organised services. However, there was a lack of well documented examples of services that had been taken to scale that could guide how to replicate successful scaling up in other settings. Recommendations are made on the basis of available evidence for how to take forward the process of scaling ...

low-income countries, mental health, middle-income countries
June 1, 2015 Publication

Improving the prevention and management of chronic disease in low-income and middle-income countries: a priority for primary health care.

The burden of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and mental disorders is high in low-income and middle-income countries and is predicted to increase with the ageing of populations, urbanisation, and globalisation of risk factors. Furthermore, HIV/AIDS is increasingly becoming a chronic disorder. An integrated approach to the management of chronic diseases, irrespective of cause, is needed in primary health care. Management of chronic diseases is fundamentally different from acute care, relying on several features: opportunistic case finding for assessment of risk factors, detection of early disease, and identification of high risk status; a combination of pharmacological and psychosocial interventions, often in a stepped-care fashion; and long-term follow-up with regular monitoring and promotion of adherence to treatment. To meet the challenge of chronic diseases, primary health care will have to be strengthened substantially. In the many countries with shortages of primary-care doctors, non-physician clinicians will have a ...

chronic diseases, low-income countries, middle-income countries, primary health care
Feb. 11, 2016 South-East Asia Publication
Engaging and empowering people and communities, Reorienting the model of care, Creating an enabling environment

People-centered tuberculosis care versus standard directly observed therapy: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial

Background: Tuberculosis is a major public health concern resulting in high rates of morbidity and mortality worldwide, particularly in low-and middle-income countries. Tuberculosis requires a long and intensive course of treatment. Thus, various approaches, including patient empowerment, education and counselling sessions, and involvement of family members and community workers, have been suggested for improving treatment adherence and outcome. The current randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness over usual care of an innovative multicomponent people-centered tuberculosis-care strategy in Armenia.

Methods/design: Innovative Approach to Tuberculosis care in Armenia is an open-label, stratified cluster randomized controlled trial with two parallel arms. Tuberculosis outpatient centers are the clusters assigned to intervention and control arms. Drug-sensitive tuberculosis patients in the continuation phase of treatment in the intervention arm and their family members participate in a short educational and counselling session to raise their knowledge, decrease tuberculosis-related stigma, and enhance treatment adherence ...

empowerment, low-income countries, middle-income countries, tuberculosis
May 24, 2016 Global Publication
Engaging and empowering people and communities, Strengthening governance and accountability, Reorienting the model of care, Coordinating services within and across sectors, Creating an enabling environment

10 Best resources on… intersectionality with an emphasis on low- and middle-income countries

Intersectionality has emerged as an important framework for understanding and responding to health inequities by making visible the fluid and interconnected structures of power that create them. It promotes an understanding of the dynamic nature of the privileges and disadvantages that permeate health systems and affect health. It considers the interaction of different social stratifiers (e.g. 'race'/ ethnicity, indigeneity, gender, class, sexuality, geography, age, disability/ability, migration status, religion) and the power structures that underpin them at multiple levels. In doing so, it is a departure from previous health inequalities research that looked at these forms of social stratification in isolation from one another or in an additive manner. Despite its potential use and long history in other disciplines, intersectionality is uncommonly used in health systems research in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). To orient readers to intersectionality theory and research, we first define intersectionality and describe its role ...

intersectionality, low-income countries, middle-income countries
Dec. 3, 2019 Americas Publication
Strengthening governance and accountability, Coordinating services within and across sectors, Creating an enabling environment

Political struggles for a universal health system in Brazil: successes and limits in the reduction of inequalities

Brazil is a populous high/middle-income country, characterized by deep economic and social inequalities. Like most other Latin American nations, Brazil constructed a health system that included, on the one hand, public health programs and, on the other, social insurance healthcare for those working in the formal sector. This study analyzes the political struggles surrounding the implementation of a universal health system from the mid-1980s to the present, and their effects on selected health indicators, focusing on the relevant international and national contexts, political agendas, government orientations and actors.

equity in health, implementation, inequality, middle-income countries, patients needs, public health, universal health coverage
Jan. 21, 2020 Americas Publication
Engaging and empowering people and communities, Coordinating services within and across sectors, Creating an enabling environment

Primary Health Care That Works: The Costa Rican Experience

Long considered a paragon among low- and middle-income countries in its provision of primary health care, Costa Rica reformed its primary health care system in 1994 using a model that, despite its success, has been generally understudied: basic integrated health care teams. This case study provides a detailed description of Costa Rica’s innovative implementation of four critical service delivery reforms and explains how those reforms supported the provision of the four essential functions of primary health care: first-contact access, coordination, continuity, and comprehensiveness. As countries around the world pursue high-quality universal health coverage to attain the Sustainable Development Goals, Costa Rica’s experiences provide valuable lessons about both the types of primary health care reforms needed and potential mechanisms through which these reforms can be successfully implemented.

organization of care, mortality, middle-income countries, health, delivery reform, public health, acces to care, universal health coverage, decentralization, multidisciplinary teams, population, primary health care reform, systems of care clinics