Mental Health in the Workplace: Situation Analyses, United States

Mental illness constitutes one of the world\u27s most critical and social health problems. It affects more human lives and wastes more human resources than any other disabling condition. The ILO’s activities promote the inclusion of persons with physical, psychiatric and intellectual disabilities into mainstream training and employment structures. The ILO’s primary goals regarding disability are to prepare and empower people with disabilities to pursue their employment goals and facilitate access to work and job opportunities in open labour markets, while sensitising policy makers, trade unions and employers to these issues. The ILO\u27s mandate on disability issues is specified in the ILO Convention 159 (1983) on vocational rehabilitation and employment. No. 159 defines a disabled person as an individual whose prospects of securing, retaining, and advancing in suitable employment are substantially reduced as a result of a duly recognised physical or mental impairment. The Convention established the principle of equal treatment and employment for workers with disabilities

Mental Health and Work: Impact, Issues and Good Practices

[From Introduction] There is growing evidence of the global impact of mental illness. Mental health problems are among the most important contributors to the burden of disease and disability worldwide. Five of the 10 leading causes of disability worldwide are mental health problems. They are as relevant in low-income countries as they are in rich ones, cutting across age, gender and social strata. Furthermore, all predictions indicate that the future will see a dramatic increase in mental health problems

Exploring University-Community Collaborations

The Riverside neighborhood bears multiple burdens of environmental harm. Running the gamut from groundwater contamination in subsurface waters to lead in soils and dust and paint to particulate matter in the air from highways and industry, these environmental insults harm the physical, mental, and economic well-being of the community. The community has also faced an information gap where data was scarce, hard to locate, and sometimes wrong. Activists have long worked to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood, but faced barriers in the form of policies (e.g. Red Lining, zoning variances, disinvestment in public services such as street lights and sidewalks) and practices (e.g. absentee landlords, illegal dumping). Features such as the Central Canal that were developed into recreational amenities in other parts of the city were minimally maintained or restricted from use by residents. In the face of these challenges, IUPUI faculty, students, and community members have partnered on multiple projects to document the history of environmental harms, assess exposure and risk of residents’ exposomes, and share information in ways that are accessible and relevant for residents. The work supports the agency and activism of the community, particularly as it faces pressures of gentrification and university encroachment with the prospect of 16 Tech project expansion. The work also takes place in the context of contested interests and harmful legacies as representatives of an urban university that displaced longtime residents work to partner ethically and transparently with those same communities. As a result, current faculty-community collaborations operate within a space complicated by the problematic legacy of harm and ongoing structural racism. However well-intentioned, faculty, students and community members have to navigate that history and enduring power dynamics as they design their research, identify relevant questions, and share results in ways that are accessible and meaningful to community members

Delays in seeking an abortion until the second trimester: a qualitative study in South Africa

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite changes to the South African abortion legislation in 1996, barriers to women accessing abortions still exist. Second trimester abortions, an inherently more risky procedure, continue to be 20% of all abortions. Understanding the reasons why women delay seeking an abortion until the second trimester is important for informing interventions to reduce the proportion of second trimester abortions in South Africa.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Qualitative research methods were used to collect data. Twenty-seven in-depth interviews were conducted in 2006 with women seeking a second trimester abortion at one public sector tertiary hospital and two NGO health care facilities in the greater Cape Town area, South Africa. Data were analysed using a grounded theory approach.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Almost all women described multiple and interrelated factors that influenced the timing of seeking an abortion. Reasons why women delayed seeking an abortion were complex and were linked to changes in personal circumstances often leading to indecision, delays in detecting a pregnancy and health service related barriers that hindered access to abortion services.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Understanding the complex reasons why women delay seeking an abortion until the second trimester can inform health care interventions aimed at reducing the proportion of second trimester abortions in South Africa.</p

Social Innovation For Health Research: Development of the SIFHR Checklist

BACKGROUND: Social innovations in health are inclusive solutions to address the healthcare delivery gap that meet the needs of end users through a multi-stakeholder, community-engaged process. While social innovations for health have shown promise in closing the healthcare delivery gap, more research is needed to evaluate, scale up, and sustain social innovation. Research checklists can standardize and improve reporting of research findings, promote transparency, and increase replicability of study results and findings. METHODS AND FINDINGS: The research checklist was developed through a 3-step community-engaged process, including a global open call for ideas, a scoping review, and a 3-round modified Delphi process. The call for entries solicited checklists and related items and was open between November 27, 2019 and February 1, 2020. In addition to the open call submissions and scoping review findings, a 17-item Social Innovation For Health Research (SIFHR) Checklist was developed based on the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) Checklist. The checklist was then refined during 3 rounds of Delphi surveys conducted between May and June 2020. The resulting checklist will facilitate more complete and transparent reporting, increase end-user engagement, and help assess social innovation projects. A limitation of the open call was requiring internet access, which likely discouraged participation of some subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: The SIFHR Checklist will strengthen the reporting of social innovation for health research studies. More research is needed on social innovation for health