Reference Guides for Health Care Organizations Seeking Accreditation for High-quality, Gender-sensitive Reproductive Health Services

Bolivia’s Integral Health Coordination Program (PROCOSI), a network of 33 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) providing reproductive health care, has long promoted gender sensitivity as a necessary component of high-quality health care. PROCOSI encourages member NGOs to address gender-based differences in roles, relationships, access to services, and service needs in their reproductive health programs. The Reference Guides in this publication provide guidance to help health-care organizations and NGOs implement high-quality, gender-sensitive standards to achieve certification for their member clinics and administrative centers. The procedures and standards included here are based on the process developed by PROCOSI, but the approach and standards can be modified to fit local needs and conditions. The Reference Guides focus on a formal certification process, but this guidance can also be used by NGOs that are not aiming for certification but that wish to evaluate and improve the quality and gender sensitivity of their services. The publication includes a Procedures Guide, Self-Training Guide, Assessment Guide, and Costing Guide

Reference Guides for Health Care Organizations Seeking Accreditation for High-quality, Gender-sensitive Reproductive Health Services—Appendixes

Bolivia’s Integral Health Coordination Program (PROCOSI), a network of 33 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) providing reproductive health care, has long promoted gender sensitivity as a necessary component of high-quality health care. PROCOSI encourages member NGOs to address gender-based differences in roles, relationships, access to services, and service needs in their reproductive health programs. Included in this document are the Appendixes to “The Reference Guides for Health Care Organizations Seeking Accreditation for High-Quality, Gender-Sensitive Reproductive Health Services,” which provide guidance to help health-care organizations and NGOs implement high-quality, gender-sensitive standards to achieve certification for their member clinics and administrative centers. The procedures and standards are based on the process developed by PROCOSI, but the approach and standards can be modified to fit local needs and conditions. The reference guides focus on a formal certification process, but this guidance can also be used by NGOs that are not aiming for certification but that wish to evaluate and improve the quality and gender sensitivity of their services

Willingness-to-pay for services provided by the Clinical Services Improvement Project (CSI) in Egypt

Willingness-to-pay (WTP) surveys are increasingly used in reproductive health programs to predict the impact of price changes on revenues, utilization, and client profile. The FRONTIERS program worked with the Clinical Services Improvement (CSI) project and the Cairo Demographic Center to carry out a WTP survey in six CSI clinics in Egypt. The survey found that most clients would be willing to pay higher prices for CSI services, and WTP did not vary much by client economic status. However, predictive validity was low when all reasons for client discontinuation were included. WTP surveys have the potential to be useful tools for predicting client response to price increases, but predictions for methods like DMPA (which have high discontinuation for method-related reasons) must be adjusted downward using data on method discontinuation from program statistics or from the literature

Perceived age discrimination across age in Europe: from an ageing society to a society for all ages

Ageism is recognized as a significant obstacle to older people's well-being, but age discrimination against younger people has attracted less attention. We investigate levels of perceived age discrimination across early to late adulthood, using data from the European Social Survey (ESS), collected in 29 countries (N = 56,272). We test for approximate measurement invariance across countries. We use local structural equation modeling as well as moderated nonlinear factor analysis to test for measurement invariance across age as a continuous variable. Using models that account for the moderate degree of noninvariance, we find that younger people report experiencing the highest levels of age discrimination. We also find that national context substantially affects levels of ageism experienced among older respondents. The evidence highlights that more research is needed to address ageism in youth and across the life span, not just old adulthood. It also highlights the need to consider factors that differently contribute to forms of ageism experienced by people at different life stages and ages.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Leveraging Farmer Field Days to Provide Family Planning and Other Health Services in Rural Kenya

Background: Access to family planning (FP) and other reproductive health (RH) services is difficult in much of rural Africa. Distance to health facilities, staff shortages, stock-outs, and other barriers impede the uptake and continued use of contraception. One way to improve FP access in rural areas is to deliver FP services at non-health events. FHI and Land O’Lakes collaborated to assess a model for providing health services through existing farmer-education events.  This study examined the introduction of Family Planning/Reproductive Health services through Land O’Lakes-supported dairy cooperatives. Methods: The study was conducted at seven events in Central and Rift Valley provinces between August and December 2010. Typical field days draw attendees from across the dairy sector: farmers, processors, development partners and officials from the Ministry of Livestock Development and the Kenya Dairy Board. At each study site, local Land O Lakes and dairy cooperative staff helped to incorporate a “family health camp” where attendees could consult with clinicians. The package included FP services, child immunizations, antenatal care, sexually transmitted infection screening and treatment, and HIV counseling and testing. All women, 18 to 49 years old, who received services from an on-site provider, were invited to participate in a survey about the health camp and the offered services. A total of 319 women were interviewed. Key findings: Use of health services at the seven field days was high; more than 80% of the 2,344 attendees received consultations. The services provided most frequently during the field-days were non-reproductive health exams (66%), FP counseling (18%), and HIV counseling and testing (13%). Of the women interviewed, 40% were affiliated with a dairy cooperative. One-quarter of current FP users acquired additional supplies of contraceptives at the event.  Knowledge contributions: This study contributes to the scant data regarding the provision of health services in the non-health sector. . This model provides a convenient way for rural people to access health services. Key Words: FP services, non-health sector, rural area, farmer

Molecular-beam epitaxial growth of a far-infrared transparent electrode for extrinsic Germanium photoconductors

We have evaluated the optical and electrical properties of a far-infrared (IR) transparent electrode for extrinsic germanium (Ge) photoconductors at 4 K, which was fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). As a far-IR transparent electrode, an aluminum (Al)-doped Ge layer is formed at well-optimized doping concentration and layer thickness in terms of the three requirements: high far-IR transmittance, low resistivity, and excellent ohmic contact. The Al-doped Ge layer has the far-IR transmittance of >95 % within the wavelength range of 40--200 microns, while low resistivity (~5 ohm-cm) and ohmic contact are ensured at 4 K. We demonstrate the applicability of the MBE technology in fabricating the far-IR transparent electrode satisfying the above requirements.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the PAS

Nucleon structure from mixed action calculations using 2+1 flavors of asqtad sea and domain wall valence fermions

We present high statistics results for the structure of the nucleon from a mixed-action calculation using 2+1 flavors of asqtad sea and domain wall valence fermions. We perform extrapolations of our data based on different chiral effective field theory schemes and compare our results with available information from phenomenology. We discuss vector and axial form factors of the nucleon, moments of generalized parton distributions, including moments of forward parton distributions, and implications for the decomposition of the nucleon spin.Comment: 68 pages, 47 figures. Main revision points: improved discussion of chiral fits and systematic uncertainties, several minor refinements. Accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.

Nucleon Electromagnetic Form Factors from Lattice QCD using 2+1 Flavor Domain Wall Fermions on Fine Lattices and Chiral Perturbation Theory

We present a high-statistics calculation of nucleon electromagnetic form factors in $N_f=2+1$ lattice QCD using domain wall quarks on fine lattices, to attain a new level of precision in systematic and statistical errors. Our calculations use $32^3 \times 64$ lattices with lattice spacing a=0.084 fm for pion masses of 297, 355, and 403 MeV, and we perform an overdetermined analysis using on the order of 3600 to 7000 measurements to calculate nucleon electric and magnetic form factors up to $Q^2 \approx$ 1.05 GeV$^2$. Results are shown to be consistent with those obtained using valence domain wall quarks with improved staggered sea quarks, and using coarse domain wall lattices. We determine the isovector Dirac radius $r_1^v$, Pauli radius $r_2^v$ and anomalous magnetic moment $\kappa_v$. We also determine connected contributions to the corresponding isoscalar observables. We extrapolate these observables to the physical pion mass using two different formulations of two-flavor chiral effective field theory at one loop: the heavy baryon Small Scale Expansion (SSE) and covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory. The isovector results and the connected contributions to the isoscalar results are compared with experiment, and the need for calculations at smaller pion masses is discussed.Comment: 44 pages, 40 figure

Effects and cost of implementing a gender-sensitive reproductive health program in Bolivia

The Integral Health Coordination Program (Programa de Coordinación en Salud Integral or PROCOSI), a network of 24 Bolivian NGOs, and the Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) program evaluated the effects of interventions on clinic clients and their partners, and estimated the costs of incorporating a gender perspective into service delivery. Results show that sexual and reproductive health service organizations can implement action plans to change organizational policies and service delivery practices and to improve their infrastructure and equipment to make them more convenient for clients. The results further show that the intervention made modest but important changes in partner dynamics. No evidence was found that the incorporation of a gender perspective had an effect on the demand for sexual and reproductive health services. In the context of the current study, if change in unmet need is posited as the measure of success, then the question for program managers is whether this expenditure is justified to achieve the resulting changes in unmet need