Refugee Women Resettling in the United States at Mid-Life aftter Ethnic Cleansing

This is a case study of two women resettling in the United States after surviving ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and a discussion of refugee women at mid-life. We learned about their lives through their participation in testimony and biographical interviewing. Daniel Levinson's study of women's lives provides a frame for thinking about the refugee woman's life after ethnic cleansing. The mid-life refugee woman's experience in the private and public spheres is changed by their traumas, but also by the transition from early to middle adul thood. Her recovery will be further shaped by the contours of her continued adult development as will the lives of her children.Ceci est une étude de cas portant sur deux femmes s'installant pour vivre aux États-Unis après avoir survécu à l'expérience de la purification ethnique en Bosnie. Il s'agit aussi d'une discussion de la question de la femme quadragénaire réfugiée. Nous avons eu accès aux détails de la vie de ces deux femmes grâce à leur participation à des témoignages et à des entrevues à visée biographique. L'étude de Daniel Levinson sur la vie de la femme produit le cadre de départ permettant de poser le problème de la vie de la femme réfugiée après le drame de la purification ethnique. L'expérience de la femme quadragénaire dans les sphères publiques et privées est tranformée par le traumatisme qu'elle a vécu, mais tout autant par la transition qui la voit passer de jeune adulte à adulte mûre. Son rétablissement sera désormais façonné par le profil de son développement continu dans la vie adulte. Il en est autant de la vie de ses enfants

BUILDING ONLINE AND TELEPHONE PSYCHOLOGICAL FIRST AID SERVICES IN A LOW RESOURCE SETTING DURING COVID-19: THE CASE OF KOSOVO

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures brought for prevention of infections are associated with considerable psychosocial and psychological morbidity in the general population. Providing continuous mental health services during the pandemics is a challenge worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper reports on the strategies and activities taken to protect public mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kosovo. This included establishing online and phone psychological first aid services and developing psychoeducational videos and webinars. The paper concludes with several lessons learned during the process of establishing and maintaining these interventions, such as: initial political endorsement is crucial to gain and maintain the momentum of services; continuous training of volunteers is crucial for both addressing the needs/problems, which arise during the process of work and maintain the motivation of volunteers; promotion of the services is crucial; academic curricula training mental health professionals should include digital mental health related courses and manualization on how to establish this kind of services in midst of crisis is crucial in order to ensure quick operationalization when needed again especially in LMIC settings. The interventions developed provide opportunity for further research especially by evaluating the impact of the services and exploring how online and provision of mental health and psychoeducation services online could help to cover services gap in times of isolation, limited movement and situations similar to pandemics in settings with limited mental health services and resources. The situation with pandemics with COVID 19 is still far from ending. Future waves of infections and restriction could again spike the mental health and psychosocial and psychological strain of the general population, therefore being prepared in provisions of psychological first aid and other mental health services online is crucial

Multilevel hiv Prevention to Address the Impact of Labor Migration on Wives

In this paper, studies of Tajik wives documented how male labor migration both increased husband’s mobility and infidelity, and diminished wives’ control over finances, sexuality, and health. Based upon these results, authors have formed an Intervention Design Collaborative (idc) of migrants, wives, community leaders and providers which developed a new hiv prevention model called Healthy Homes. It was designed as a multilevel hiv prevention to reduce hiv risk among wives of migrants by: 1) enhancing wives’ hiv risk awareness, knowledge, and prevention skills; 2) improving wives’ access to hiv/sti care, and; 3) promoting cultural norms and attitudes that enable wives to be more active in protecting themselves and their families from hiv. A pilot study of Healthy Homes was conducted in two Dushanbe primary care clinics. Compared with the controls, the Healthy Homes group reported statistically significant increases in hiv knowledge and worry, communication with spouse and health worker, hiv and sti testing, condom attitudes and use with husband. No increases in family conflict or violence were reported. In conclusion, multilevel hiv prevention centered on wives of seasonal labor migrants is feasible, acceptable, and if effective, could help to halt the current and future growth in hiv among high-risk populations of labor migrants and their families.Nos recherches sur les épouses tadjikes ont documenté comment la migration de la main-d’œuvre masculine augmentait la mobilité et l’infidélité du mari et diminuait le contrôle des femmes sur les finances, la sexualité et la santé. Sur la base de ces résultats, des chercheurs de l’Université de l’Illinois à Chicago en collaboration avec le Prisma Research Center au Tadjikistan ont formé un groupe de migrants, d’épouses, de leaders communautaires et de fournisseurs appelé Intervention Design Collaborative (idc) qui a développé un nouveau modèle de prévention du vih. Appelé Healthy Homes. Il a été conçu comme un outil de prévention multiscalaire du vih pour réduire le risque de vih chez les épouses de migrants en: 1) améliorant leurs connaissances des risques, leurs compétences en matière de prévention du risque de vih chez les femmes; 2) en améliorant l’accès des femmes aux soins du vih et des ist; 3) en faisant la promotion des normes et des attitudes culturelles qui permettent aux femmes d’être plus actives pour se protéger et protéger leur famille contre le vih. Une étude pilote de Healthy Homes a été menée dans deux cliniques de soins primaires de Douchanbe. Comparé au groupe témoin, le groupe Healthy Homes a signalé une augmentation statistiquement significative des connaissances et des inquiétudes liées au vih, une communication avec le conjoint et le personnel de santé, des tests de dépistage du vih et des ist, l’usage de préservatifs et leur utilisation avec le mari. Aucune augmentation des conflits familiaux ou de la violence n’a été signalée. En conclusion, une prévention multiniveau centrée sur les épouses de travailleurs saisonniers est faisable, acceptable et, si elle est efficace, pourrait aider à stopper la croissance actuelle et future du vih parmi les populations à haut risque de travailleurs migrants et leurs familles.На основе исследования, проведённых среди таджикских жён, в статье показано, как мужская трудовая миграция повышает мобильность и неверность супруг и снижает контроль жён за финансами, сексуальностью и здоровьем. Основываясь на этих результатах, авторы разработали комплекс мероприятий под названием сотрудничество по выработке мер (idc) по мигрантам, жёнам, лидерам общин и кормильцам семeй, которая предлагает новую модель профилактики вич, называемую «здоровые семьи». idc была разработана как многоуровневая профилактика вич-инфекции для снижения риска вич среди жён мигрантов путём: 1) повышения их осведомлённости, знаний и профилактики вич-инфицирования; 2) улучшения их доступа к медицинскому обслуживанию при вич/иппп и; 3) поощрения культурных норм и подходов, которые позволяют жёнам проявлять большую активность в защите себя и своих семей от вич. Пилотное исследование «здоровые семьи» было проведено в двух клиниках первичной медико-санитарной помощи в Душанбе. По сравнению с контрольной группой, группа «здоровые семьи» показала статистически значимое повышения уровня знаний и беспокойства, связанных с вич, поддержанием коммуникации с супругом и работниками здравоохранения, тестированием на вич и иппп, и использованием презервативов с супругами. В течение рассматриваемого периода, каких-либо семейных конфликтов и насилий не отмечалось. В заключение можно предположить, что многоуровневая профилактика вич, ориентированная на жён сезонных трудовых мигрантов, является осуществимым, приемлемым и эффективным методом, что может помочь остановить нынешний и будущий рост вич-инфекции среди населения повышенного риска трудовых мигрантов и их семей

A global matchmaking web platform facilitating equitable institutional partnerships and mentorship to strengthen health workforce training capacity

The critical human resources deficit in the healthcare sector in low-resource settings (LRS) has an overwhelming impact on health outcomes and disparities in growth and development of the global healthcare workforce. There is a lack of qualified trainers and mentors and this makes it challenging to connect existing capacity gaps with existing expertise and established programs. Through global health partnerships, training programs, and mentorship, individuals and institutions from around the globe can connect to share training resources and strengthen clinical and research capacity in LRSs. Global health partnerships focused on capacity building face many challenges including; unequal access to information about potential partners and training opportunities, a lack of transparency regarding each institutions training priorities, and inequity and absent reciprocity within global health partnerships that have disproportionate power division between high-resource and LRSs. This initiative, the Consortium of Universities for Global Health Capacity Strengthening Platform (CUGH-CPS) (CUGHCapacityBuilding.org), aims to empower institutions and individuals in LRSs to address these challenges and drive partnership engagement through avenues that are beneficial to the LRS agent needs and context by leading the prioritization of training capacity development across clinical and research domains. The CUGH-CPS helps to identify and create a platform for the dissemination of training and mentorship needs from LRS institutions and share this information with the global community. This manuscript describes this new initiative officially launched to a global audience at the April 2023 CUGH meeting

Mobilizing Community and Family Resilience Across Illinois

Findings: To mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and alleviate the pressure on medical resources, state and local governments in Illinois have mandated measures of social distancing, including sheltering at home. While necessary during a pandemic, these measures have the potential to undermine essential social and family ties that individuals depend upon on top of the present-day illness and death from COVID-19, and fears thereof, as well as the associated economic crisis. All Illinoisans are impacted by the strains COVID-19 places upon communities and families, but some persons are more vulnerable than others, including the elderly, and those with disabilities, prior mental illness, financial disparities, and fragile social and family ties.Prior disasters have taught that mobilizing community and family resilience can help promote positive coping for all, and prevent adverse health and mental health outcomes, especially for the most vulnerable. </div

Supporting the Healthcare Workforce in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

SARS-CoV-2, a new coronavirus disease first identified in 2019 (COVID-19), is responsible for the pandemic that is presently straining the Illinois’ healthcare workforce and is expected to continue doing so for the next several years. Prior pandemics and disasters have demonstrated that the scope of responsibilities for all types of healthcare workers evolves as a disaster unfolds, from meeting surging needs by prioritizing patient care, to re-balancing activities as each surge waxes and wanes, to recovery and mitigation, and finally to preparing for future disasters. This report presents a high-level summary of the current and expected impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the healthcare workforce and makes a series of recommendations about how to minimize the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers and their families in Illinois, now and over time. The report draws on well-established frameworks for response to pandemics and disasters distilled from a body of research and practice. We conclude that focused supportive actions are necessary to facilitate work responsibilities under new pressures—people, information, process, technology, equipment, space—and to promote personal wellness—physical and psychosocial. Many steps taken to ensure public and workforce safety have also introduced economic challenges that must be addressed in order to sustain these efforts to support the workforce throughout the response and recovery phases of the pandemic. Key supports for individual providers, such as hazard pay provided by employers or government1 and free hotel rooms or meals provided by private companies, two have already begun in many places across the country, but applying these at scale remains a challenge. We include two case studies showing it is possible to respond to real needs of workers even in the midst of a pandemic, if institutions are committed, creative and nimble

Developing a global medicine student pre- and post-travel curriculum

Abstract Background The popularity of short-term global health experiences amongst US medical students has been increasing. However, it remains a challenge for medical schools to comprehensively prepare students to work in an international environment and to contribute in ethically responsible and meaningful ways. Students of the Global Medicine program (GMED) of the UIC College of Medicine Center for Global Health set out to develop a pre-and-post travel curriculum that addresses some of these challenges. Methods The students surveyed the literature of 66 published global health curricula and identified aspects of pre-and-post travel training that were found to be under-addressed. They then developed a curriculum in conjunction with GMED faculty that incorporated these identified aspects of pre-and-post travel training. Results Five aspects of pre-and-post travel training were identified as being under-addressed in the literature while traveling. These domains include: [1] examining power relations associated with neo-colonization between and within countries; [2] training for bi-directional learning; [3] examining motivations and goals for participating in global health; [4] addressing personal resiliency and psychosocial wellbeing related to students’ travel, and; [5] reflecting on the challenging aspects of the fieldwork experience. Conclusions The student-driven curriculum is being integrated into the GMED program through structured didactic sessions, one-on-one mentor meetings and small group discussions. Once students have traveled, the curriculum will be evaluated with the foreign partners they visited

Attentional Bias Among High and Low Ruminators: Eye Tracking Study in a Non-Clinical Population

Rumination, which can be studied through its associated attentional biases, and is a part of the RDoC Negative Valence Systems constructs of Loss, has been proposed as a key transdiagnostic feature in depression. The current study uses eye tracking measurements to explore how different levels of brooding and reflection rumination interact with attentional biases in a non-clinical sample of high and low ruminators. Methodology: 123 adults were administered questionnaires of rumination, depression and participated in passive viewing task in which they watched sets of angry, happy, sad and neutral faces, while their eye movements were tracked. Findings indicate greater sustained attention toward sad and angry faces and away from happy faces among non-clinical individuals with high levels of brooding rumination, even when controlling for depression scores. The study adds further evidence that brooding rumination and attentional biases to negative stimuli are associated with one another. Behavioral parameters such as attention bias to help us to distinguish high ruminators among non-clinical sample