The House of Love and the Mental Hospital

Author(s):  
Murphy Halliburton

The Movement for Global Mental Health has defined the person suffering psychopathology in low-income countries as an abused and suffering subject in need of saving by biomedical psychiatry. Based on fieldwork in Kerala, South India, carried out at psychiatric clinics and a psychosocial rehabilitation centre, this paper examines patients’ experiences of illness, the degree and quality of family support, and attributions made to the role of ‘sneham’, or love, in recovery. The role of love and family involvement may help explain the provocative finding by WHO epidemiological studies that ‘developing’ countries – and India in particular – showed better rates of recovery from severe mental illness when compared to developed countries.

Policy Papers ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (38) ◽  
Author(s):  

Diversification and structural transformation play important roles in influencing the macroeconomic performance of low-income countries (LICs). Increases in income per capita at early stages of development are typically accompanied by a transformation in a country’s production and export structure. This can include diversification into new products and trading partners as well as increases in the quality of existing products.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Kigozi ◽  
J. Ssebunnya

Mental health care is receiving increased attention in low-income countries with the availability of a wide range of effective evidence-based treatments for acute and chronic mental disorders amidst scarce resources. Availability of these treatments and competent human resources enables the use of a variety of interventions at several levels of care for persons with mental illness and makes it feasible to ensure observance of quality in the treatment approaches that go beyond institutionalisation. However, unlike developed countries which are endowed with many and relatively well-paid mental health specialists, low-income countries face a dire shortage of highly trained mental health professionals in addition to several other challenges. In light of this, there is need to re-assess the role of the few available psychiatrists, with a shift to new core tasks such as designing mental health care programmes that can be delivered by non-specialists, building their health system's capacity for delivering care, including supporting front-line health workers through support supervision, raising awareness on mental health and patients’ rights in addition to promoting essential research. This requires a fundamental paradigm shift from the current training for mental health specialists to a public health oriented approach and providing incentives for community engagement.


Author(s):  
Pratima Saravanan ◽  
Charity Hipple ◽  
Jingxin Wang ◽  
Christopher McComb ◽  
Jessica Menold

Abstract Prosthetists face a daunting number of decisions that directly affect an amputee’s ability to walk and indirectly affect the overall quality of life of that amputee. In addition, the lack of resources in low-income countries provides a barrier to receive care after an amputation, and approximately 80% of amputees in low-income countries lack appropriate prosthetic care. In this research, we are motivated to understand what factors affect the decision-making strategies of prosthetists and podiatrists when prescribing prosthetics and orthotics to partial foot amputees. This work establishes a decision-making framework as a step towards automated methods that may reduce the complexities and decision-making burden of prosthetic prescription, ultimately increasing the efficiency of prosthetic prescription in low-resourced areas. A decision-making model is proposed based on an extensive literature review of over 100 papers. The proposed model is compared to qualitative data regarding decision-making strategies during prosthetic or orthotic prescription collected from nine prosthetists, surgeons, and other healthcare professionals directly involved in amputee care. Changes to the proposed model are described and future work exploring the role of automated methods to support decision-making in the context of prosthetics is discussed.


2005 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Szalavetz

This paper discusses the relation between the quality and quantity indicators of physical capital and modernisation. While international academic literature emphasises the role of intangible factors enabling technology generation and absorption rather than that of physical capital accumulation, this paper argues that the quantity and quality of physical capital are important modernisation factors, particularly in the case of small, undercapitalised countries that recently integrated into the world economy. The paper shows that in Hungary, as opposed to developed countries, the technological upgrading of capital assets was not necessarily accompanied by the upgrading of human capital i.e. the thesis of capital skill complementarity did not apply to the first decade of transformation and capital accumulation in Hungary. Finally, the paper shows that there are large differences between the average technological levels of individual industries. The dualism of the Hungarian economy, which is also manifest in terms of differences in the size of individual industries' technological gaps, is a disadvantage from the point of view of competitiveness. The increasing differences in the size of the technological gaps can be explained not only with industry-specific factors, but also with the weakness of technology and regional development policies, as well as with institutional deficiencies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-600
Author(s):  
Obiora Chinedu Okafor ◽  
Sanaa Ahmed ◽  
Sylvia Bawa ◽  
Ibironke Odumosu-Ayanu

AbstractThis study examines the African Human Rights Action Plan (AHRAP) through the lens of Upendra Baxi's germinal theory on the emergence in our time of a ‘trade-related, market-friendly human rights’ (TREMF) thesis that is challenging the specific understandings of ‘people-centric’ human rights that are predicated in the letter and spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDH). Baxi contends, instead, that the dominant strands of the contemporary understandings of human rights are – for the most part – designed to protect the interests of global capital. That said, human rights frameworks in low-income countries need to be studied with a view to what they say and don't say about global capital. Despite its attempt to facilitate a progressive realisation of human rights in Africa, the AHRAP does not rise far enough above the TREMF paradigm to re-locate itself within the UDH one. This is due to the AHRAP not adequately theorising and analysing the role of capital in the (non)realisation of human rights in Africa. By allowing trade and market practices to slip to a significant extent beyond its purview, the AHRAP privileges – to a significant degree – the needs/interests of capital over the human rights of ordinary Africans. That is, the victims of the excesses of capital in Africa are reincarnated in the AHRAP document by the fact of their exclusion from it.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-87
Author(s):  
Meaghan Lunney ◽  
Aminu K. Bello ◽  
Adeera Levin ◽  
Helen Tam-Tham ◽  
Chandra Thomas ◽  
...  

Background and objectivesPeople with kidney failure typically receive KRT in the form of dialysis or transplantation. However, studies have suggested that not all patients with kidney failure are best suited for KRT. Additionally, KRT is costly and not always accessible in resource-restricted settings. Conservative kidney management is an alternate kidney failure therapy that focuses on symptom management, psychologic health, spiritual care, and family and social support. Despite the importance of conservative kidney management in kidney failure care, several barriers exist that affect its uptake and quality.Design, setting, participants, & measurementsThe Global Kidney Health Atlas is an ongoing initiative of the International Society of Nephrology that aims to monitor and evaluate the status of global kidney care worldwide. This study reports on findings from the 2018 Global Kidney Health Atlas survey, specifically addressing the availability, accessibility, and quality of conservative kidney management.ResultsRespondents from 160 countries completed the survey, and 154 answered questions pertaining to conservative kidney management. Of these, 124 (81%) stated that conservative kidney management was available. Accessibility was low worldwide, particularly in low-income countries. Less than half of countries utilized multidisciplinary teams (46%); utilized shared decision making (32%); or provided psychologic, cultural, or spiritual support (36%). One-quarter provided relevant health care providers with training on conservative kidney management delivery.ConclusionsOverall, conservative kidney management is available in most countries; however, it is not optimally accessible or of the highest quality.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huaiyu Gu ◽  
Zhen Zhang ◽  
Yi-shuang Xiao ◽  
Ru Shen ◽  
Hong-chao Jiang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Retinoblastoma is a rare intraocular malignancy and typically initiated by inactivating biallelic mutations of RB1 gene. Each year, ~8,000 children worldwide are diagnosed for retinoblastoma. In high-income countries, patient survival is over 95% while low-income countries is ~30%.If disease is diagnosed early and treated in centers specializing in retinoblastoma, the survival might exceed 95% and many eyes could be safely treated and support a lifetime of good vision. In China, approximate 1,100 newly diagnosed cases are expected annually and 28 hospitals covering 25 provinces established centers classified by expertise and resources for better treatment options and follow-up. Comparing with other province of eastern China, Yunnan province is remote geographically. This might result that healthcare staff have low awareness of the role of genetic testing in management and screening in families.Methods: The patients with retinoblastoma were selected in Yunnan. DNA from blood was used for targeted gene sequencing. Then, an in-house bioinformatics pipeline was done to detect both single nucleotide variants and small insertions/deletions. The pathogenic mutations were identified and further confirmed by conventional methods and cosegregation in families.Results: Using our approach, targeted next generation sequencing was used to detect the mutation of these 12 probands. Bioinformatic predictions showed that nine mutations were found in our study and four were novel pathogenic variants in these nine mutations.Conclusions: It’s the first report to describe RB1 mutations in Yunnan children with retinoblastoma. This study would improve role of genetic testing for management and family screening.


2016 ◽  
pp. 1208-1227
Author(s):  
Monica Gray

Diarrhea is the second leading cause of death and is the major cause of malnutrition in children under age 5 worldwide. More than 50 percent of the cases occur in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Open defecation, substandard fecal disposal systems, and contaminated water supplies are the typical causes of diarrheal diseases. This public health crisis in low income countries mirrors the experiences of today's industrialized nations two centuries ago. The lessons learned from their sanitary evolution can be instructive in charting a sustainable path towards saving the lives of almost 2 million children annually. In this chapter a case study of Cuba's sanitary reformation is also presented to showcase successes, similar to those of developed countries, within a developing country and economically challenging context.


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