A study of human resource competencies required to implement community rehabilitation in less resourced settings.

BACKGROUND: It is estimated that over one billion persons worldwide have some form of disability. However, there is lack of knowledge and prioritisation of how to serve the needs and provide opportunities for people with disabilities. The community-based rehabilitation (CBR) guidelines, with sufficient and sustained support, can assist in providing access to rehabilitation services, especially in less resourced settings with low resources for rehabilitation. In line with strengthening the implementation of the health-related CBR guidelines, this study aimed to determine what workforce characteristics at the community level enable quality rehabilitation services, with a focus primarily on less resourced settings. METHODOLOGY: This was a two-phase review study using (1) a relevant literature review informed by realist synthesis methodology and (2) Delphi survey of the opinions of relevant stakeholders regarding the findings of the review. It focused on individuals (health professionals, lay health workers, community rehabilitation workers) providing services for persons with disabilities in less resourced settings. RESULTS: Thirty-three articles were included in this review. Three Delphi iterations with 19 participants were completed. Taken together, these produced 33 recommendations for developing health-related rehabilitation services. Several general principles for configuring the community rehabilitation workforce emerged: community-based initiatives can allow services to reach more vulnerable populations; the need for supportive and structured supervision at the facility level; core skills likely include case management, social protection, monitoring and record keeping, counselling skills and mechanisms for referral; community ownership; training in CBR matrix and advocacy; a tiered/teamwork system of service delivery; and training should take a rights-based approach, include practical components, and involve persons with disabilities in the delivery and planning. CONCLUSION: This research can contribute to implementing the WHO guidelines on the interaction between the health sector and CBR, particularly in the context of the Framework for Action for Strengthening Health Systems, in which human resources is one of six components. Realist syntheses can provide policy makers with detailed and practical information regarding complex health interventions, which may be valuable when planning and implementing programmes

Some novel aspects of the positive linear observer problem: differential privacy and optimal l1 sensitivity

We present several results concerning the l1 sensitivity, a crucial parameter for differential privacy, of a positive linear observer. Specifically, for compartmental systems we derive explicit analytic expressions for positive observers that minimize a bound for the l1 sensitivity. Results are given for single-output systems and classes of multiple-output systems. For single-output general positive systems, we characterize the optimal l1 sensitivity bound of a positive observer with given convergence rate. We also make some initial observations on sensitivity for more general classes of positive observers

Leader following with non-homogeneous weights for control of vehicle formations

In this paper, we study a formation control scheme that achieves a tight formation in a 1D platoon. The scheme achieves constant inter-vehicle spacings (with no transient) for almost every vehicle pair whenever there are no disturbances. We build up from the basic leader following approach with a modification in the weight selection. In particular, each member tracks the movement of its immediate predecessor but also uses the leader state, which needs to be transmitted, in order to achieve a tight formation. The key design choice is the use of filters for the measurements that set the transfer functions from the leader trajectory to the inter-vehicle spacings to zero whenever possible. We support the analysis of the architecture with numerical simulations

MOESM6 of Development of a peer-supported, self-management intervention for people following mental health crisis

Additional file 6: DS8. Pilot trial (stage 5)—main themes from participant interviews

La Charente

17 décembre 18891889/12/17 (A18,N7182)-1889/12/17.Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : PoitouCh

Additional file 1: of Crisis resolution and home treatment: stakeholders’ views on critical ingredients and implementation in England

Contains additional methodological details. (DOCX 15 kb

Reliability of moderate-intensity and vigorous physical activity stage of change measures for young adults.

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of stage of change (SOC) measures for moderate-intensity and vigorous physical activity in two separate samples of young adults. Staging measures have focused on vigorous exercise, but current public health guidelines emphasize moderate-intensity activity.MethodFor college students in the USA (n = 105) and in Australia (n = 123), SOC was assessed separately on two occasions for moderate-intensity activity and for vigorous activity. Test&ndash;retest repeatability was determined, using Cohen&rsquo;s kappa coefficient.ResultsIn both samples, the reliability scores for the moderate-intensity physical activity staging measure were lower than the scores for the vigorous exercise staging measure. Weighted kappa values for the moderate-intensity staging measure were in the &ldquo;fair to good&rdquo; range for both studies (0.50 and 0.45); for the vigorous staging measure kappa values were &ldquo;excellent&rdquo; and &ldquo;fair to good&rdquo; (0.76 and 0.72).ConclusionsThere is a need to standardize and improve methods for staging moderate-intensity activity, given that such measures are used in public health interventions targeting HEPA (health-enhancing physical activity).<br /

Additional file 5: Table DS5. of Development of a measure of model fidelity for mental health Crisis Resolution Teams

Concept mapping participant prioritisation data: CORE Study data set. (XLSX 27 kb