Using Data Integration to Improve Health and Welfare Insights

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is a leader in the provision of high-quality health and welfare information. Its work program has built a strong evidence base for better decisions that deliver improved health and welfare outcomes. The evolution of the AIHW’s data integration program has exemplified innovation in identifying and addressing key information gaps, as well as responsiveness to opportunities to develop and capture the data required to inform national priorities. The AIHW conducts data integration in partnership with data custodians and specialists in integration and analysis. A linkage project requiring the integration of Australian government data must be undertaken by an accredited integrating authority. The AIHW has met stringent criteria covering project governance, capability, and data management to gain this accreditation. In this capacity, the AIHW is trusted to integrate Australian government data for high-risk research projects. To date, the AIHW’s integration projects have generated improved research outcomes that have identified vulnerable population groups, improved the understanding of health risk factors, and contributed to the development of targeted interventions. These projects have fostered new insights into dementia, disability, health service use, patient experiences of healthcare, and suicide. Upcoming projects aim to further the understanding of interrelationships between determinants of wellbeing.

One or Trine: The (possible) impacts of the PEC 45/2019 on Brazilian fiscal decentralization

During the passage of time, it is necessary for a legal system to introduce structural reforms, given the maximum effectiveness of Law. And, among the main reforms proposed to the Brazilian order, there is the tax reform, represented, above all, by the PEC 45/2019. Several points are innovative, such as the adoption of the Value Added Tax (VAT) - renamed Tax on Goods and Services (IBS) - on consumer goods, in the three federal spheres, the basis of which comes from five other taxes: Tax on Industrialized Products ( IPI), Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS), Tax on Services (ISS), Contribution to the Financing of Social Security (Cofins) and Social Integration Program (PIS); having specific rates for each federative entity and abolition of taxes such as the Tax on Financial Operations (IOF). However, would the creation or abolition of these taxes be positive or negative for the fiscal decentralization proposed in the 1988 Charter? An unsolvable dichotomy. Despite the selective rates for the three federative entities (Union, States and Municipalities), the Reform intends to create a central body, whose character would be to inspect such rates according to the total. There is, therefore, a paradox: between one and triune. Based on such affirmative assumptions, this article will have an exploratory character, with deduction as a method and data collection extracted from documents, bibliography and data taken from administrative bodies.

FEUP peer mentoring: Promoting integration through support and experience sharing

Admission to higher education is a milestone in the lives of young people. This can be accompanied by several changes in the student’s life such as a new place of residence, a new group of friends, and a new type of education. This entry into higher education can provide a new series of experiences, challenges, and newfound independence. However, it might also expose problems and difficulties, possibly hampering the student's personal and academic development. In order to ease the integration into higher education, the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) has developed a Peer Mentoring Programme promoted by students already attending different FEUP courses (mentors) which intends to support the first-year students (mentees) in this phase of their life, coordinated by some teachers from each course. This social and academic integration program is supported by 4 core ideas: Integration, Support, Experience, and Sharing. This work provides insight into the way in which this program is organized at FEUP, highlighting the students’ participation (mentees and mentors), the main contributions that each of them values, their degree of satisfaction and involvement, activities that were developed, and some testimonies.

INTEGRATED TRADITIONAL HEALTH SERVICE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER IN DENPASAR BALI

Traditional Health Services (Yankestrad) is a development program that is a priority of the Indonesian government, and its existence is of sufficient interest to the public so that it needs to be developed to improve public health. Yankestrad can be combined with conventional health services to be implemented in an integrated manner in hospitals and in health centers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Yankestrad program in Denpasar Bali and develop strategies for the development of the Yankestrad Integration program at community health centers (Puskesmas) in Denpasar Bali. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative using SWOT analysis. The results showed that the implementation of the Yankestrad Integration program in Denpasar City was categorized as sufficient. The dominant internal factor being the strength is that the vision and mission of the Yankestrad program has been stated in the strategic plan and trained and certified health workers, while the weakness is that the officers hold multiple programs so that they do not focus on providing services. The external factor, the biggest opportunity is community empowerment through independent care groups with the use of family medicinal plants (TOGA), and the biggest threat is that the community still tends to curative rather than preventive efforts and the community still sees Yankestrad as magical / mystical. Yankestrad Integration development strategy can be carried out by supporting an aggressive growth policy or a Streng Opportunity strategy, namely by taking advantage of opportunities to use their strengths for the sustainability of the program.

The State and Challenges of Human Trafficking in Nigeria: Implications for National Peace and Security

In the West African sub-region, the trend of trafficking in persons is widespread; and the phenomenon now attaining its peak unhindered, has actually portrayed Nigeria as a nation occupying a central position as an originating state, transit and destination for victims of trafficking. There is also evidence of internal trafficking from rural zones to cities. The menace of human trafficking in Nigerian state has taken an indescribable facet in the last two decades owing to the factors of; massive unemployment, poverty, recession in the economy, conflicts, globalization, existing weak legal system, and inadequate legislation, and political will. Trafficking in person is an organized crime and a modern form of slavery. The two methods used by traffickers to get their victims are deception and through force. Human trafficking has continued to strive in Nigeria because of shameful connivance among the Nigeria’s security agencies, Embassies, airline officials and human traffickers. The study adopts Marcus Felson and Lawrence Cohen’s Routine Activity and the Kevin Bales’ Modern Slavery theories (1979; 1999). 500 copies of questionnaire were administered to a set of purposively selected respondents with the In-Depth Interview Guide to elicit information on the subject. The study in its findings reveals that human trafficking has continued to strive in Nigeria because of connivance from the security, immigration, embassy, airline officials and traffickers while the menace has put Nigeria’s identity black in the global system. The study therefore recommended that the Nigerian government should swiftly endeavour to address the issue of massive unemployment and poverty in the state as well as create enabling environments for entrepreneurship for the citizenry; also the national laws, international conventions and protocols that have legal potencies to curb trafficking must be implemented or strengthened; and finally, fighting human trafficking in Nigeria requires more efforts to create public awareness of the crime, organize counseling, rehabilitation and re-integration program for the victims.