SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Capacity Building”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 685 records · Page 38Linked to original sources

PubMed2006

Prevention of mental and behavioural disorders: implications for policy and practice.

There is sufficient evidence indicating the efficacy of interventions in reducing risk factors, increasing protective factors, preventing psychiatric symptoms and new cases of mental disorders. Macro-policy interventions to improve nutrition, housing and education or to reduce economic insecurity have proven to reduce mental health problems. Specific interventions to increase resilience in children and adolescents through parenting and early interventions, and programmes for children at risk for mental disorders such as those who have a mentally ill parent or have suffered parental loss or family disruption, have also shown to increase mental well-being and decrease depressive symptoms and the onset of depressive disorders. Interventions for the adult population, from macro-policy strategies, such as taxation of alcohol products or workplace legislation, to individual support for those with signs of a mental disorder, can reduce mental health problems and associated social and economic burdens. Exercise, social support or community participation have also shown to improve mental health of older populations. Public mental health will benefit from continuing building the evidence base through combining different evaluation methods across low, middle and high income countries. The translation of evidence into policy and practice calls for action at the international, national and local level, including building capacity, advocacy, mainstreaming mental health into public health and other policies and securing infrastructures and sustainability. Mental health professionals have an important role to play in improving the evidence on prevention and promotion in mental health, in engaging relevant stakeholders for developing programmes, and as professional care providers in their practice.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2006

Microbial forensics for natural and intentional incidents of infectious disease involving animals.

Microbial forensics is a relatively new scientific discipline dedicated to analysing microbiological evidence from a crime for attribution purposes. It builds on traditional microbiology and epidemiology but within a legal framework. Important motives for forensic investigations include interdiction of criminals, prosecution of justice, and ideally, deterrence of others from committing similar acts. Forensic capabilities in animal health should focus on building capacity for detection and reporting of increases in infectious disease morbidity and mortality among animals that might reflect a covert release of a pathogen. Suspicion should be raised when epidemiological patterns are different from those expected for the animal population and the pathogen in question. Existing capacities for the detection and reporting of epidemic and even endemic diseases should be an international priority for the prevention of catastrophic losses in animal and potentially in human life. The veterinary community needs to be more aware of the legal requirements related to forensic investigations so that veterinarians will be prepared to handle evidence properly within their own fields.

Animal Diseases↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Critical analysis on best practices in health literacy.

From a holistic perspective, health literacy is a requirement for the well-being of entire populations. It moves beyond the focus on individuals to consider the role of organizations and systems. This perspective offers a context for discussing best practices in health literacy, and implications for research and policy development. This paper offers an overview of the best practices that were presented at the Second Canadian Conference on Literacy and Health. It discusses clear writing in some detail because it was emphasized at the conference. It also considers practices that were addressed less emphatically, such as oral communication between patients and health care professionals, training for health care professionals, non-written means of communication (such as video), and building capacity through action-research. The paper critiques some practices. It also notes the lack of research on the links between health literacy and oral understanding, on the impact of verbal and non-written interventions, and on the effectiveness of these practices on the health outcomes of the population. It briefly discusses policy issues and suggests some future directions.

Benchmarking↗

PubMed1991

The Mutual Assistance Programme of the IUATLD. Development, contribution and significance.

The Mutual Assistance Programme of the IUATLD is aimed at trying to compensate for the neglect into which tuberculosis had fallen from the part of governments, teaching institutions and international agencies, and represents an innovative approach to promote solidarity between governments and voluntary organizations of low tuberculosis prevalence countries and those of high prevalence countries. The main objective has been to develop a system of delivery of treatment and diagnosis of tuberculosis that would be efficacious even under the difficult conditions of high prevalence of tuberculosis, low resources and/or socio-political disturbances. The system turned out not only to be efficacious in terms of cure rates and epidemiological impact but also to be efficient in terms of cost/benefit. The National Tuberculosis Programme's approach includes the application of short-course chemotherapy, the regular provision of drugs and products, a system of registers, forms and periodic reports, the assessment of the yield of case-finding and, most important of all, the analysis of the therapeutic results in successive cohorts of patients. Cure rates repeatedly reach around 85% in new cases and approximately 80% in retreatment cases, nationwide, in the countries where such programmes have been successively implemented. Each national programme has an important role of training and of capacity building. While serving the populations, the national programmes also provide the framework for relatively inexpensive operational research and, finally, the careful collection of data represents a basis--unique of its kind in the world--for the study of the clinical and epidemiological relationships between tuberculosis and HIV. The method has been endorsed by the WHO and has the support of the World Bank, the United Nations Development Plan and the main government Agencies for Development Cooperation. It is part of the new Global Strategy against Tuberculosis which is presently being developed under the WHO TB Unit. The other aspects of Mutual Assistance concern courses, consultation to programmes not directly sponsored by the IUATLD and publications.

Charities↗

PubMed2006

The burden of cardiovascular disease in the Indian subcontinent.

Ischaemic heart disease and stroke are among the most common causes of death and disability in the world. The Indian subcontinent (including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal) has among the highest rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) globally. Previous reports have highlighted the high CVD rates among South Asian immigrants living in Western countries, but the enormous CVD burden within the Indian subcontinent itself has been underemphasized. In this review, we discuss the existing data on the prevalence of CVD and its risk factors in the Indian subcontinent. We also review recent evidence indicating that the burden of coronary heart disease in the Indian subcontinent is largely explained on the basis of traditional risk factors, which challenges the common thinking that South Asian ethnicity per se is a strong independent risk factor for coronary heart disease. Finally, we suggest measures to implement in policy, capacity building, and research to address the CVD epidemic in the Indian subcontinent.

Cardiovascular Diseases↗

PubMed2006

Public investment in strengthening Veterinary Services and other food safety authorities: issues affecting developed and developing countries.

During the negotiation of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement), there was clear recognition of the problems that developing countries would face in complying with the SPS Agreement. The agreement included provisions related to technical assistance and special differential treatment for developing countries. Both topics are discussed in the SPS Committee as a regular agenda item and have been subject to substantive consideration during both reviews of the SPS Agreement, in 1999 and latterly in 2005. The SPS Committee is currently considering proposals to make these provisions more precise, effective and operational. The Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) was formally established in mid-2002 by the Food and Agriculture Organization, World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), World Bank, World Health Organization and World Trade Organization as a financing and coordinating mechanism. The STDF maintains a database which provides information on SPS-related technical assistance and capacity-building projects. From the limited data gathered, it would appear that the focus of the technical assistance provided so far has been knowledge transfer. Only a small minority of the projects reported deal with the strengthening of hard infrastructure such as laboratory facilities. It is also clear that in terms of the overall number and value of projects, animal health lags well behind the food safety sector. The World Bank estimates that annual expenditure by donor agencies on trade-related SPS programmes has been running at some USdollars 65 million to USdollars 70 million annually. However, there is under-reporting of technical cooperation activities in the STDF database.

Animals↗

PubMed1991

Funding of health research in India.

An overview of financing of health research in India is presented based on data for the year 1987-88, collected from nearly 298 institutions involved in health research. Only 8 per cent of the funds was derived from foreign sources. Distribution of research funds was highly skewed. Research activity seemed to have concentrated in a few specialty institutes located in the four metropolitan cities. Research activities apparently matched the national health priorities, reproductive health being the most frequently reported area of research. The study concludes that since health is primarily a service sector, its research needs are not fully appreciated. As a result, research allocation in the health sector is lower, as compared to that for many other developmental sectors. The paper highlights some of the implications of this lopsided distribution to research capacity building in the country.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Concept and practice of international health in the Takemi program].

The Takemi Program in International Health was established at the Harvard School of Public Health in 1983 as a research and advanced training program for midcareer health professionals concerned with the allocation of resources for health, especially in developing countries. This essay describes the origins of the Takemi Program and presents seven principles that underlie the concept and practice of international health in the Takemi Program. The principles are: research emphasis, policy orientation, interdisciplinary perspective, mutual respect, individual freedom, community spirit, and individual capacity building. The broader implications of these principles are suggested for current efforts to redefine the concept of international health.

Curriculum↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The Centers for Disease Control program to prevent primary and secondary disabilities in the United States.

The Disabilities Prevention Program builds on traditional Centers for Disease Control (CDC) strengths in public health surveillance, epidemiology, and technology transfer to State and local governments in translating the findings of research into prevention programs. The objectives of the CDC program are to provide a national focus for the prevention of primary and secondary disabilities, build capacity at the State and community levels to maintain programs to prevent disabilities, and increase the knowledge base necessary for developing and evaluating effective preventive interventions. During 1989, CDC, in consultation with the National Council on Disabilities and members of the disability community, has elected to focus its effort in three areas: developmental disabilities, injuries to the head and spinal cord, and secondary complications among persons with physical disabilities.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.↗

PubMed1986

Social policy and drug safety.

Drug safety policy for the elderly says more by its relative silence and ambiguity than it could by any single affirmative set of rules and principles. The difficulties in developing such social policies embody the interaction of the complexities of each of three dimensions: social policy, which requires consensus on roles, responsibilities, and the sharing of costs; drug safety monitoring, which requires a maturing and evolving body of science, technology, and practice to converge; and geriatric pharmacology, about which the answers are only now beginning to materialize. The social forces of incomplete consensus, incomplete science, and incomplete technology beg for a solid public policy. However in the next breath they beg, yet more urgently, for the first step in such public policy, a step that remains to be taken and is of great urgency. All of those concerned with the goal of minimizing the morbidity and disability, regardless of the state of disease, in the elderly must collaborate to chart the course for each of these three forces to reach the level in which responsible social policy can be made. This will require a good faith collaboration among government, the pharmaceutical industry, the health professions, the university community, and patients or their advocates. Although the recommendations of the Melmon Commission for the creation of a "Center for Drug Safety," jointly funded by government, the industry, and the universities, may never be fulfilled and may not, in fact, be needed in bricks and mortar, certainly the spirit of such a center must be the essential first step. The ground rules--for collaboration, capacity building, nurturance, support, and professional development and technology, particularly linkage-extension--must similarly be discussed broadly in open forum. Otherwise, multiple empires, separate mutually incompatible systems, and epidemiologic squabbling will surely carry the day. Finally, research must be done better to define, understand, and address special problems of the elderly. In the end, it is this special population who must receive the unique attention of drug safety policies and their implementing systems. Just as the processes of health and of ill health need better understanding, so too must the processes of aging and their impacts upon drug risk be better understood. This research must go beyond the high-tech spheres of pharmacology and pharmacokinetics. The addition of epidemiologic analysis of risk factors for therapeutic misadventure (iatrogenic and self-induced) and for health status specific long- and short-term adverse drug experience will contribute substantially to drug safety in the elderly.

Aged↗

PubMed1977

The role of red cell membrane in the regulation of glycolysis and the 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate-cycle.

Pyruvate and K-ferricyanide stimulation of net ATP and 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate synthesis is very probably due to enhancement of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase activity. Significant peculiarities in the K-ferricyanide effect and its depression by non-penetrating-SH inhibitors at low concentrations were noted and suggested that membrane-bound enzymes play a substantial part in the synthesis of ATP and 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate. Experiments with isolated ghosts showed their ATP-and 2,3-bis-phosphogylcerate-building capacity. Pulse-labeling with 32P-Pi and determination of specific radioactive in intracellular inorganic phosphate and ATP-gamma-P demonstrated that the ferricyanide-stimulated compartment utilizes only intracellular inorganic phosphate for ATP (and 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate) synthesis, and does so only when extracellular inorganic phosphate is present.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗

PubMed1984

Renovation and expansion of an academic health sciences library.

Planning is described for the renovation, expansion, and principal design features of the Health Sciences Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The three-and-a-half-year construction project resulted in the addition of three floors over the existing building and a complete renovation of the original floor space. An architectural summary provides statistics on project costs and building capacities.

Facility Design and Construction↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Local health department effectiveness in addressing the core functions of public health.

Objective 8.14 of the Year 2000 National Health Objectives calls for 90 percent of the population to be served by a local health department effectively carrying out the three core functions of public health--assessment, policy development, and assurance. To provide a benchmark of local health department effectiveness in addressing the core functions and to assess implications for achieving the year 2000 target, a random national sample (stratified by jurisdiction and population base) of local health departments was surveyed to determine self-reported compliance with 10 public health practice performance measures that operationalize the core functions. Overall compliance with the 10 performance measures was 50 percent, based on weighted responses of 208 responding health departments. Compliance was highest for the practices related to the assurance function and least for practices related to the policy development function. Compliance was also high for departments serving a population of 50,000 or more and those smaller departments organized at the city and city-county levels. Using two different definitions developed by the investigators, 19 and 31 percent of the health departments were judged to be effective in addressing the core functions of public health. These data suggest that less than 40 percent of the U.S. population was served by a health department effectively addressing the core functions of public health in 1993. It appears that considerable capacity building within the public health system will be needed to achieve the year 2000 target of 90 percent.

Community Health Services↗

PubMed1995

[Severe poisoning by 4-aminopyridine in a body builder].

A 22-year-old man was admitted to hospital with severe, accidental intoxication with 4-aminopyridine, a medicine which increases the acetylcholine concentration in the synapses and has a limited application in the treatment of some neurological diseases. The patient acted on the assumption of body-building capacities of this 'amino'. Apart from the previously documented symptoms of intoxication such as an epileptic attack and confusion, he showed cardiac arrhythmias, conduction disorders and severe hypertension. The serum concentration of 4-aminopyridine was 335 mg/l, while the therapeutic level is 25-75 mg/l.

4-Aminopyridine↗

PubMed1996

Mental health under war conditions during the 1991-1995 war in the former Yugoslavia.

If this war were a "peace time disaster" it is estimated that more than one million people would be in need of assistance due to mental health issues. The estimated helping capacity, however, can cover only a small proportion of the need. This imbalance may create a severe threat to the mental health of the war-torn population in a medium- and long-term perspective. Complications related to war-trauma-induced stress disorders may give rise to significant increases in alcohol and drug abuse, domestic and criminal violence, suicides, homicides and chronic mental illness. This article outlines the international efforts to include psychosocial and mental health interventions as part of the emergency assistance programme. Special emphasis is directed at the development of the new WHO Regional Model on Mental Health. The model is a coordinated set of mental health activities for a defined geographical area with a population of 300,000-400,000 inhabitants. The key elements are: coordination, collection of background data ("war-time epidemiology"), capacity building and self-empowerment of local professionals at all levels, as well as a community-oriented approach to mental health care and primary health care. A new structure to achieve sustainability and continuity of preventive mental health interventions, the European University Centre for Mental Health and Human Rights, is proposed for the medium- and long-term perspective of assistance.

Child↗

PubMed2005

Building geographic information system capacity in local health departments: lessons from a North Carolina project.

State government, university, and local health department (LHD) partners collaborated to build the geographic information system (GIS) capacity of 5 LHDs in North Carolina. Project elements included procuring hardware and software, conducting individualized and group training, developing data layers, guiding the project development process, coordinating participation in technical conferences, providing ongoing project consultation, and evaluating project milestones. The project provided health department personnel with the skills and resources required to use sophisticated information management systems, particularly those that address spatial dimensions of public health practice. This capacity-building project helped LHDs incorporate GIS technology into daily operations, resulting in improved time and cost efficiency. Keys to success included (1) methods training rooted in problems specific to the LHD, (2) required project identification by LHD staff with associated timelines for development, (3) ongoing technical support as staff returned to home offices after training, (4) subgrants to LHDs to ease hardware and software resource constraints, (5) networks of relationships among LHDs and other professional GIS users, and (6) senior LHD leadership who supported the professional development activities being undertaken by staff.

Community Health Services↗

PubMed2006

Harnessing collaboration to build nursing research capacity: a research team journey.

This paper discusses a qualitative evaluation study, designed to explore nursing lecturers' research capability development through their engagement as co-researchers in a larger case study project (referred to as the 'main project'). It explores the justification for supporting research capacity development using this collaborative approach, the process and experience of undertaking collaborative research, and the effectiveness of this model of collaboration in developing new researchers. The paper also makes connections between the process of undertaking the research (designed to offer opportunities for inexperienced researchers to be involved) and the main project findings (which explored the ways in which academic schools develop research capacity). We first set the main project in its wider context and map key issues relating to research capacity development and collaboration in the literature, before outlining how we involved neophyte and 'midiphyte' researchers. The evaluative study, which is the focus of this paper, discusses the experiences of the neophyte researchers, and explores the synergies between the main project's key findings and the process of undertaking it. We conclude with some principles for using collaboration to build research capacity, visualised through a conceptual model. While this project was located within two universities in the UK, the development of research skills amongst nurses is likely to have broad international relevance. NB1 References to 'nursing', 'nursing research', and 'nursing education' are taken throughout to apply equally to midwifery, midwifery research, and midwifery education. NB2 For the purpose of this project, neophyte researchers are defined as staff needing formal training in research and involvement in others' research, and 'midiphyte' researchers as those with some training but needing support to develop research ideas.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2004

Building family/general practice research capacity.

To promote the range of interventions for building family/general practice (family medicine) research capacity, we describe successful international examples. Such examples of interventions that build research capacity focus on diseases and illness research, as well as process research; monitor the output of research in family/general practice (family medicine); increase the number of family medicine research journals; encourage and enable research skills acquisition (including making it part of professional training); strengthen the academic base; and promote research networks and collaborations. The responsibility for these interventions lies with the government, colleges and academies, and universities. There are exciting and varied methods of building research capacity in family medicine.

Biomedical Research↗