East Timor in Transition: Health and Health Care

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 607-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Povey ◽  
Mary Anne Mercer

East Timor was liberated from 400 years of conquest and exploitation in an armed struggle that ended, in September 1999, in a conflagration that destroyed its social and physical infrastructures. For two years the territory has been under United Nations administration. Political conditions remain unstable as the result of many intrinsic and external factors. Its economy continues to depend upon infusions of funds from multilateral, bilateral, and private sources. Efforts by expatriates to introduce Euro-American cultural and technical models have been applied to the factors that determine health, with modest results. East Timor expects to be totally independent of foreign control early in 2002. Its future health will depend upon continuing collaboration between international and local leadership in evolving effective government, economy, and health services designed, managed, and executed by Timorese.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1127-1133
Author(s):  
Pierre-André Michaud ◽  
Annemieke Visser ◽  
Johanna P M Vervoort ◽  
Paul Kocken ◽  
Sijmen A Reijneveld ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Mental health problems in adolescence can profoundly jeopardize adolescent current and future health and functioning. We aimed to describe existing recommendations and services regarding the delivery of primary mental health care for adolescents in 31 European countries. Methods Data on the availability and accessibility of primary mental health services were collected, as part of the Horizon 2020-funded project Models of Child Health Appraised. One expert from each country answered a closed items questionnaire during years 2017–18. Results All 31 participating countries had some policy or recommendations regarding the availability and accessibility of primary mental health services for adolescents, but their focus and implementation varied largely between and within countries. Only half of the participating countries had recommendations on screening adolescents for mental health issues and burdens. Merely a quarter of the countries had ambulatory facilities targeting specifically adolescents throughout the whole country. Just over half had some kind of suicide prevention programs. Same-day access to primary care in case of -health emergencies was possible in 21 countries, but often not throughout the whole country. Nineteen countries had strategies securing accessible mental health care for vulnerable adolescents. Conclusions Overall, around half of European countries had strategies securing access to various primary mental health care for adolescents. They frequently did not guarantee care over the whole country and often tackled a limited number of situations. EU countries should widen the range of policies and recommendations governing the delivery of mental health care to adolescents and monitor their implementation.


Author(s):  
Bonita Beulah Beatty ◽  
Loleen Berdahl

Canadian researchers and policymakers have paid limited attention to the health care needs of Aboriginal seniors. This lack of attention is problematic, as the situation of Aboriginal seniors – including both status and non-status First Nations, Métis and Inuit – is particularly bleak. Using Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon as examples, this paper analyses the health care challenges facing Aboriginal seniors in urban Canada. We ask, what policy approaches are needed to improve the health and wellbeing of urban Aboriginal seniors so that they can have good quality living reflective of their needs and culture? We suggest that, in thinking through present and future health services for urban Aboriginal seniors, policymakers should consider four key factors: socioeconomic conditions; underutilization of urban health services; jurisdiction; and elder abuse.


2020 ◽  
pp. 216769682090229
Author(s):  
Jennie Tang ◽  
Christopher Perlman ◽  
Scott T. Leatherdale ◽  
Mark A. Ferro

The challenges of living with cancer can compound the normative stresses of navigating emerging adulthood and have long-term psychiatric consequences. However, there is a lack of information on the mental health services required by this potentially vulnerable group of young people. This study estimated the prevalence of mental disorder among emerging adults (EAs) with cancer and examined their perceived needs for mental health care. Data from 5,590 individuals (15–29 years) who participated in the Canadian Community Health Survey—Mental Health were used in the analyses. The prevalence of mood or substance use disorder among those with cancer ( n = 42) was 42.9% compared to 32.2% among controls. EAs with cancer had higher odds of reporting unmet perceived needs for mental health care, OR = 7.72, 95% CI [1.85, 28.57]. This suggests an opportunity to improve future health services aimed at addressing the mental health care needs for EAs with cancer and potentially, other long-term chronic conditions.


1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-14
Author(s):  
Donald E. Stewart

The all-party Social Development Committee of the Victorian Parliament reported in 1984 that the existing system of dealing with complaints and grievances about health services was totally inadequate and in need of urgent changes. The Committee recommended that a model complaints mechanism should be set up to provide a clear, coherent and consistent system for dealing with complaints about health services. The Government responded by setting up the Office of the Health Services Commissioner to assist consumers and providers to resolve complaints about health services and, through the monitoring of complaints and analysis of health system data, to recommend improvements in the quality of health service provision. Aside from redress of grievances, this response was motivated by a desire to improve management and accountability of health care services. The data generated by the improved complaints system became a performance measure against clear objectives set by all publicly-funded health care institutions. The data generated by consumer perceptions became a central element in the formulation of future health policies.


1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-275
Author(s):  
O. Lawrence ◽  
J.D. Gostin

In the summer of 1979, a group of experts on law, medicine, and ethics assembled in Siracusa, Sicily, under the auspices of the International Commission of Jurists and the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Science, to draft guidelines on the rights of persons with mental illness. Sitting across the table from me was a quiet, proud man of distinctive intelligence, William J. Curran, Frances Glessner Lee Professor of Legal Medicine at Harvard University. Professor Curran was one of the principal drafters of those guidelines. Many years later in 1991, after several subsequent re-drafts by United Nations (U.N.) Rapporteur Erica-Irene Daes, the text was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly as the Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and for the Improvement of Mental Health Care. This was the kind of remarkable achievement in the field of law and medicine that Professor Curran repeated throughout his distinguished career.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-63
Author(s):  
Silke Heuse ◽  
Cathrin Dietze ◽  
Daniel Fodor ◽  
Edgar Voltmer

Background: Future health-care professionals face stress both during education and in later professional life. Next to educational trainings, many students are forced to assume part-time employment. Objective: Applying the Job Demands-Resources Model to the educational context, we investigate which role part-time employment plays next to health-care professional students’ education-specific demands and resources in the prediction of perceived stress. Method: In this cross-sectional study, data from N = 161 health-care students were analysed, testing moderation models. Results: Education-specific demands were associated with higher and education-specific resources with lower amounts of perceived stress. Part-time employment functioned as moderator, i.e. demands were less associated with stress experiences in students who were employed part-time. Conclusion: Identifying part-time employment as a resource rather than a demand illustrates the need to understand students’ individual influences on stress. Both educators and students will benefit from reflecting these resources to support students’ stress management.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 60-65
Author(s):  
Umi Solikhah ◽  
Hari Kusnanto ◽  
Fitri Haryanti

Community empowerment with regard to maternal and child health services at the community level carried out by cadre.Cadre is health volunteers, selected by the community.404 number of active cadres in primary health care of South Purwokerto entirely female, although it may be a cadre of men. Active cadre toddler actively providing services every month for child before 5 years age. Interest to know the various reasons committed cadres in performing their duties. The method used is qualitative study,to describe a variety of reasons commitment to perform cadre duties in child health care. Retrieving data using interview techniques through the focus group discussion. Data from 30 cadres.Results of interviews taken until the data saturation, as a reason believed by cadres in the commitment to carry out tasks of serving the Muslim community. Characteristic respondent are mean of age 38 years (the youngest age of 25 years and the oldest 55 years old), a 100% Islamic religion, level of education majority of senior high school(at least primary school). Educational level health cadres in Banyumas has met the minimum requirements by the WHO.Results of the analysis showed thatcommitment includes a cadre of dedicated, caring community, a desire to learn, social esteem, individual satisfaction, togetherness, organization, and spirituality. The spirit of cadre to the community need the attention of the government for development and prosperity in accordance with their duties.Spiritual reasons become one of the motivations in providing health services to the community, albeit to a spirit of dedication and a great desire to learn. Cadres continue to provide services, even to families with different spiritual.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 1473-1476
Author(s):  
Ashwika Datey ◽  
Soumya Singhai ◽  
Gargi Nimbulkar ◽  
Kumar Gaurav Chhabra ◽  
Amit Reche

The COVID 19 outbreak has been declared a pandemic by the world health organisation. The healthcare sector was overburdened and overstretched with the number of patient increasing and requiring health services. The worst-hit population always are the people with special needs, whether it is children, pregnant females or the geriatric population. The need for the emergency kind of health services was so inflated that the other special population which required them equally as those patients with the COVID 19 suffered a lot. Dentistry was not an exception, and even that is also one of the important components of the health care delivery system and people requiring oral health care needs were also more. Those undergoing dental treatments would not have completed the treatment, and this would have resulted in various complications. In this situation, some dental emergency guidelines have been released by Centres for Disease Control (CDC) for the urgent dental care those requiring special care dentistry during the COVID 19 pandemic. Children with special care needs were considered more vulnerable to oral diseases; hence priority should have been given to them for dental treatments moreover in the future also more aggressive preventive measures should be taken in order to maintain oral hygiene and prevent many oral diseases. Guardians/caregivers should be made aware and motivated to maintain the oral health of children with special health care needs. This review mainly focuses on the prevention and management of oral diseases in children's with special care needs.


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