This book was commissioned by the Department of Ethics, Equity, Trade and Human Rights as part of the work undertaken by the Priority Public Health Conditions Knowledge Network of the Commission on ...Social Determinants of Health, in collaboration with 16 of the major public health programs of WHO: alcohol-related disorders, cardiovascular diseases, child health, diabetes, food safety, HIV/AIDS, maternal health, malaria, mental health, neglected tropical diseases, nutrition, oral health, sexual and reproductive health, tobacco and health, tuberculosis, and violence and injuries. In addition to this, through collaboration with the Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, and the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, 13 case studies were commissioned to examine the implementation challenges in addressing social determinants of health in low-and middle-income settings. The Priority Public Health Conditions Knowledge Network has analyzed the impact of social determinants on specific health conditions, identified possible entry-points, and explored possible interventions to improve health equity by addressing social determinants of health.
When people come first Biehl, Joao; Petryna, Adriana
2013., 20130707, 2013, 2013-07-07
eBook
When People Come Firstcritically assesses the expanding field of global health. It brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to address the medical, social, political, ...and economic dimensions of the global health enterprise through vivid case studies and bold conceptual work. The book demonstrates the crucial role of ethnography as an empirical lantern in global health, arguing for a more comprehensive, people-centered approach.
Topics include the limits of technological quick fixes in disease control, the moral economy of global health science, the unexpected effects of massive treatment rollouts in resource-poor contexts, and how right-to-health activism coalesces with the increased influence of the pharmaceutical industry on health care. The contributors explore the altered landscapes left behind after programs scale up, break down, or move on. We learn that disease is really never just one thing, technology delivery does not equate with care, and biology and technology interact in ways we cannot always predict. The most effective solutions may well be found in people themselves, who consistently exceed the projections of experts and the medical-scientific, political, and humanitarian frameworks in which they are cast.
When People Come Firstsets a new research agenda in global health and social theory and challenges us to rethink the relationships between care, rights, health, and economic futures.
Despite some recent successes in Ghana, further improvements in health outcomes are inpart hampered by the lack of skilled service providers, or human resources for health (HRH),particularly in rural ...areas, where critical health services are needed most. To address thelack of information and guide the development of policies and programs on HRH, TowardInterventions in Human Resources for Health in Ghana: Evidence for Health Workforce Planningand Results aims to paint a comprehensive picture of HRH, consolidating new and existingevidence on the stock, distribution, and performance of h ealth workers to focus on the what,as in What is the situation on HRH? and the how, as in How is this situation explained?The book highlights new evidence on some of the underlying determinants affectingthe stock, distribution, and performance of health workers in Ghana, including healthworker production and attrition, capacity to manage HRH, the capacity of health traininginstitutions, and health worker compensation. Policy options on HRH are also discussed, as isthe fi scal and political environment needed to develop and implement such interventions.The data and findings presented in this book are the result of extended and closecollaboration between the Ghana Technical Working Group on HRH (led by the Ministryof Health) and the World Banks Africa Region Technical Team on HRH. The information inthis book will provide a better basis for Ghanaian decision makers and external partners tohave a dialogue on HRH and related policies. More broadly, Toward Interventions in HumanResources for Health in Ghana: Evidence for Health Workforce Planning and Results will be ofinterest to all those working to improve human resources for health in Africa and beyond.
Between its founding in 1966 and its formal end in 1980, the Black Panther Party blazed a distinctive trail in American political culture. The Black Panthers are most often remembered for their ...revolutionary rhetoric and militant action. Here Alondra Nelson deftly recovers an indispensable but lesser-known aspect of the organization's broader struggle for social justice: health care. The Black Panther Party's health activism-its network of free health clinics, its campaign to raise awareness about genetic disease, and its challenges to medical discrimination-was an expression of its founding political philosophy and also a recognition that poor blacks were both underserved by mainstream medicine and overexposed to its harms.
Drawing on extensive historical research as well as interviews with former members of the Black Panther Party, Nelson argues that the Party's focus on health care was both practical and ideological. Building on a long tradition of medical self-sufficiency among African Americans, the Panthers' People's Free Medical Clinics administered basic preventive care, tested for lead poisoning and hypertension, and helped with housing, employment, and social services. In 1971, the party launched a campaign to address sickle-cell anemia. In addition to establishing screening programs and educational outreach efforts, it exposed the racial biases of the medical system that had largely ignored sickle-cell anemia, a disease that predominantly affected people of African descent.
The Black Panther Party's understanding of health as a basic human right and its engagement with the social implications of genetics anticipated current debates about the politics of health and race. That legacy-and that struggle-continues today in the commitment of health activists and the fight for universal health care.
In Eliminating Healthcare Disparities in America, Dr. Richard Allen Williams assembles the very best scholars on healthcare disparities to raise the public consciousness of this issue. These experts ...provide the benefits of their experience and expertise as a resource for helping others to make judicious determinations about how to proceed in efforts to improve the disparities in American healthcare. Arranged into discrete categories, this volume contains comprehensive coverage, both historical and current, of the healthcare disparity crisis currently plaguing our country in hopes of leading us all to a brighter future. The volume includes chapters of examples that are currently working and concludes with recommendations on how to move forward. The text is not intended to be one in which all of the answers are given to the multitude of problems. Instead, Eliminating Healthcare Disparities in America is intended to raise the readers level of consciousness and concern and to increase the knowledge base about the issues. This groundbreaking text will be an initial spark that ignites the fire that may one day eliminate healthcare disparities in communities around the country.
Critical and dangerous threats imperil global health. Serious health disparities, hazardous contagions that can circle our globalized planet in hours, a bewildering confusion of health actors and ...systems all combine in a kaleidoscopically fragmented, incoherent, and unjust global health enterprise. While a growing body of work in global justice and international relations explores moral issues and global governance, very little of it has linked principles of global health justice to governance to create a theory of global health. But the dangers confronting the world make a theoretical framework essential, to enable analysis of the current system and to ground proposals to reform it and align it with moral values. This book presents a global justice theory—provincial globalism (PG)—and links it with the theory of shared health governance (SHG) to offer an alternative to the prevailing modus operandi, which has manifestly failed to serve global health. The PG/SHG framework advances health capability, and specifically the capability to avoid premature death and preventable morbidity, as the proper goal of health systems and policy. This framework sees human flourishing as global society’s end goal and proposes an ethical demand for health equity as the criterion for evaluating global health policy and law. It examines the current actors in global health, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, and proposes assigning responsibilities to actors at all levels according to their functions and capabilities.
Starting with more general issues of healthcare policy and governance in a global perspective and using the lens of national case studies of healthcare reform, this handbook addresses key themes in ...the debates over changing healthcare policy.
As health improvement initiatives take center stage worldwide, public health professionals face an ongoing challenge to prove that the programs are worthwhile and that interventions make an impact. ...The Global Programme on Health Promotion Effectiveness (GPHPE) of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education takes on this challenge in Global Perspectives on Health Promotion Effectiveness. Fifty-five contributors representing six continents come together to analyze major programs around the world and evaluate their effectiveness. The result is a symposium in a book, the first in a series, representing the best critical thinking on crucial issues such as these: Assessment of evidence and evaluation of effectiveness in an international context. Synthesis of progress on the various GPHPE regional projects, with candid evaluations of strengths and limitations, and factors unique to each region. Advocacy to strengthen the evidence base for mental health promotion, physical activity promotion and a wide range of settings-based health promotion interventions. Challenges to health promotion and its assessment, including peace-building, urbanization, globalization, and social determinants. Global debates on emerging health promotion arenas equity, methodology, partnership, development in adverse political climates, and others as to whether or not traditional concepts of evidence, impact, and outcomes can be applied. Global Perspectives on Health Promotion Effectiveness is a significant document with profound implications for practitioners involved in implementing health promotion programs. It will serve as a vital source of frontline knowledge for researchers and students of public health.
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