Wednesday, February 6, 2008

[EQ] Health is more than Health Care: The Documentary Series - UNNATURAL CAUSES TOOLKIT

HEALTH IS MORE THAN HEALTH CARE: The Documentary Series

 

Produced by California Newsreel in association with Vital Pictures, Inc.

Presented by the National Minority Consortia of public television

Public Engagement Campaign in association with the Joint Center Health Policy Institute

 

A four-hour documentary series exploring socio-economic and racial inequities in health

Airing four consecutive Thursdays, March 27 to April 17, 2008

 

UNNATURAL CAUSES TOOLKIT

http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/toolkit.html

Public policy change is critical to achieving health equity. But how can organizations use the series to educate, organize and advocate for changes that will make a difference?

The UNNATURAL CAUSES toolkit provides facilitation tips, background, sample agendas, and guidelines for planning an effective screening – one that not only deepens understanding of issues but serves as a step towards further involvement.

Please note: The toolkit is currently available in DRAFT form only.

Download entire toolkit (PDF - 406KB)

A - Letter from the Executive Producer & Using the Series (PDF - 277KB)

B - Background (PDF - 41KB)
The Series and Public Impact Campaign
What Is Health Equity?
Ten Things to Know about Health

C - Before You Begin: Three Steps (PDF - 49KB)
Step I: Build Internal Consensus and Capacity
Step II: Develop Clear Goals & Objectives
Step III: Define Your Audience and Opportunities for Action

D - Planning Your Event (PDF - 51KB)
Types of Screenings
Episode Descriptions
Messaging: A New Story
Highlighting Promising Policies and Initiatives

E - Practical Tools (PDF - 51KB)
Tips for Ensuring a Productive Discussion
Logistics Checklist
Sample Agendas
Resources & Acknowledgements

OTHER MATERIALS TO COME:

§         UNNATURAL CAUSES Discussion Guide: suggested pre- and post-viewing activities, comprehension and discussion questions for each program, and practical follow-up actions

§         Policy Primer – Advocating for Better Policies: a detailed resource developed by the Praxis Project to help your organization plan and implement a strategy for policy change

§         Planning for Media Advocacy: also developed by the Praxis Project, in-depth advice on how to frame your message, tell your stories and get coverage; includes a media advocacy glossary

 

 

 

 *      *      *     *

This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ IKM Area]

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.

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EQUITY List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

 

 

 

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.  

[EQ] Devolution and Health , Diverging Values?

Devolution and Health, Diverging Values?

 

Paul Jervis

The Nuffield Trust, 2008

 

Available online at: http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/publications/detail.asp?id=0&PRid=307


PDF file [103p.] at:
http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/members/download.asp?f=%2Fecomm%2Ffiles%2FDevolving%5FPolicy%5FDiverging%5FValues%2Epdf

 

“…..Devolution in the UK offers a rare opportunity to observe the evolution of four health systems, each starting from a common base. This report by The Nuffield Trust focuses on how the health systems in the UK’s three devolved administrations have evolved, and how their approaches have differed from those in England…”

“…..Values are important for the success of any organisation, including the NHS. They clarify what an organisation stands for, how it will use its resources and how it will make decisions. Both devolution and the increased role of the European Union in health policy pose new challenges to our health care system. What is, and should be, at the ethical and practical core of the health care systems of the UK?

Devolving Policy, Diverging Values? focuses on the values of the NHS in each of the four nations, and those health care systems within Europe. The report contains contributions from leading health policy analysts. It aims to contribute to the debate about how we define the values of our national health service in the face of both devolution in the Uk and the development of the wider European Union. …” press article The Guardian, January 2008

Content:

Preface

Executive summary

1. Introduction

2. The role of this report

3. Northern Ireland

4. Scotland

5. Wales

6. England and the United Kingdom

7. The impact of policies for public service reform

8. The impact of European developments on UK health policy
9. Conclusions and reflections

 

 

 *      *      *     *

This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ IKM Area]

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PAHO/WHO Website: http://www.paho.org/

EQUITY List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

 

 

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.  

[EQ] Nutrition-the Forgotten MDG

The Lancet: Maternal and Child Undernutrition

Website: http://go.worldbank.org/7Q8VB5QK90

The new Lancet series on nutrition, co-authored and co-financed by the World Bank, depicts the lamentable state of under-nutrition worldwide, and a corresponding negligence on the part of the development community to meet the challenge decisively. Under-nutrition represents the non-income face of poverty. And the world is off track on meeting this goal.

More than a third of child deaths and 11% of the total disease burden worldwide are due to maternal and child undernutrition. These and other stark findings are the conclusions of an international collaboration of investigators publishing their findings in The Lancet's maternal and child undernutrition series.

The series was launched in London on January 16, 2008 at the Science and Media Centre

Nutrition has slipped through the gap
Nutrition is a desperately neglected aspect of maternal, newborn, and child health. The reasons for this neglect are understandable but not justifiable. In a comment that opens the maternal and child undernutrition series, The Lancet Editor Dr Richard Horton draws together the themes of the series, and calls on agencies, donors and political leaders to step up to this very serious challenge. He says "Undernutrition is the largely preventable cause of over a third - 3.5 million - of all child deaths. Stunting, severe waste wasting and intrauterine growth restriction are among the most important problems. There is a golden interval for intervention: from pregnancy to 2 years of age. After age 2 years, undernutrition will have caused irreversible damage for future development towards adulthood". The comment concludes by saying that the international nutrition system is broken. Leadership is absent, resources are too few, capacity is fragile, and emergency response systems are urgently needed.

Over a third of child deaths and 11% of global disease burden due to maternal and child undernutrition
More than one third of child deaths and 11% of the total disease burden worldwide are due to maternal and child undernutrition. Authors of the first paper in the series say "Maternal and child undernutrition is highly prevalent in low-income and middle-income countries, resulting in substantial increases in mortality and overall disease burden." By doing an analysis that accounted for co-exposure of nutrition-related factors, the authors found that these factors were together responsible for 35% of child deaths globally and 11% of the total disease burden. The paper concludes by making a compelling case for the urgent implementation of interventions to reduce their occurrence or ameliorate their consequences.

Poor fetal growth or stunting in first two years of life leads to huge negative consequences in later life
Authors of the second paper of the series conclude that poor fetal growth or stunting in the first two years of life can lead to irreversible damage, including shorter adult height, lower attained schooling, reduced adult income and decreased offspring birthweight for women. The researchers analysed the association between child and maternal undernutrition with human capitol and risk of adult disease in low-and-middle-income countries, focussing on five long-standing studies in Brazil, Guatemala, India, the Philippines, and South Africa. They showed that indicators of undernutrition at age two years were related to adult outcomes. Further, they found that children who are undernourished in the first two years of life, and who put on weight rapidly later in childhood and in adolescence are at a high risk of chronic diseases related to nutrition. But they found no evidence that rapid weight gain or height gain in the first two years life increases the risk of chronic disease, even in children with poor fetal growth. The authors conclude by saying "...damage suffered in early life leads to permanent impairment, and might also affect future generations. Its prevention will probably bring about important health, educational, and economic benefits."

Maternal and child nutrition interventions could prevent a quarter of child deaths in poor communities
Implementation of existing maternal and child nutrition-related interventions could prevent a quarter of all child deaths in the 36 countries with the highest burden of undernutrition. Breastfeeding counselling and vitamin A supplementation are currently the nutrition strategies with the greatest potential to cut child deaths, comment the authors of the third paper in the series. The authors studied how a variety of nutritional factors affected children's growth patterns and risk of death. In populations with enough food, education about complimentary feeding increased the height-for-age score, while provision of food supplements increased the score further in food-insecure populations. Further, the authors also found that management of severe acute malnutrition using WHO guidelines can reduce case-fatalities related to this condition by 55%, but this requires admission to a health facility. The authors add that nutrition strategies on their own are not enough, concluding by saying "Attention to the continuum of maternal and child undernutrition is essential to attainment of several of the Millennium Development Goals and must be prioritised globally and within countries... What is needed is the technical expertise and the political will to combat undernutrition in the very countries that need it most."

80% of world's undernourished children live in just 20 countries
Authors of the fourth paper in the series highlight how 80% of the world's undernourished children live in just 20 countries, and intensified nutrition action in these countries can lead to achievement of the first Millennium Development Goal and greatly increase the chances of achieving goals for child and maternal mortality. They address seven key challenges for addressing undernutrition at national level, including; getting nutrition on the list of priorities, and also keeping it there. The paper looks at the varied situation within and across Latin American countries, which as a whole have experienced a large drop in stunting, being underweight, and wasting; and China, where a multisectoral approach has seen rapid nutritional improvement. The authors caution that nutrition resources should not be used to support actions unlikely to be effective in real life setting of a particular country, nor to support actions that have not been proven to have a direct effect on undernutrition They conclude by asking "What can be done?...there are no simple prescriptions to reduce undernutrition, although high coverage with four or five of the proven interventions would certainly have a sizeable effect", charging leaders at country level to review their existing strategies and programmes.

The international nutrition system: fragmented, dysfunctional and desperately in need of reform
The final paper in the series states that the international nutrition system - made up of international and donor organisations, academia, civil society, and the private sector - is fragmented and dysfunctional, and needs reform, say authors of the fifth and final paper in the series. They say: "Financial, intellectual, and personal linkages bind these organisations loosely together as components of an international nutrition system... we argue that such a system should deliver in four functional areas: stewardship, mobilisation of financial resources, direct provision of nutrition services at times of natural disaster or conflict, and human and institutional resource strengthening." Their analysis of evidence to date finds that currently, there are substantial shortcomings in each of the areas above. Fragmentation, lack of evidence for prioritised action, institutional inertia, and failure to join up with promising developments in parallel sectors are recurrent themes. Many problems are systemic within organisations in the field. They suggest five priority areas for action to create a much stronger international nutrition system, and call for research leadership in areas that matter. The authors conclude by saying "The moment is ripe for these reforms. Their implementation would transform the political salience of undernutrition, and offer the chance of a better, more productive life to the 67 million children born each year in the countries most severely afflicted by undernutrition."

 

Other Articles in the series:

The Challenge of hunger, Josette Sheeran.

Nutrition interventions need improved operational capacity, Geert Tom Heikens, Beatrice C Amadi, Mark Manary.

The speakers at the event were:

Dr Richard Horton, Editor, The Lancet
Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Aga Khan University Pakistan
Professor Caroline Fall, Medical Research Council Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton, UK
Professor Simon Cousens, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
Dr Denise Coitinho, WHO on temporary secondment to World Food Programme
Dr Bruce Cogill, UNICEF

 

 *      *      *     *

This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ IKM Area]

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PAHO/WHO Website: http://www.paho.org/

EQUITY List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html

 

 

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.