Rooms with a View (and without) ...

There are times ... when to understand body, mind - and the things that people do to themselves and others - we need to consider the four care domains.

Then we can appeal to the fifth. ...

Achieving the health-related MDGs. It takes a workforce!

Dear colleagues,

With reference to the upcoming MDG Summit and the UN Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health, Dr Manuel Dayrit would like to share with you the above-mentioned page that was published today on the HRH website, which highlights the human resources for health situation in the 49 focus countries.

Achieving the health-related MDGs. It takes a workforce!
Link: http://www.who.int/hrh/workforce_mdgs/en/index.html

Density of doctors, nurses and midwives in the 49 priority countries
Link: http://www.who.int/hrh/density_chart.pdf

Please note that the link to the chart is:
http://www.who.int/hrh/fig_density.pdf

Kind regards,

Rebecca Bailey on behalf of Dr Manuel Dayrit
Rebecca J. Bailey, MSPH, CEd
Technical Officer
Health Workforce Education and Production
WHO/HSS/HRH

My source:
Ellen BONITO: bonitoe at wpro.who.int
GANM (Global Alliance for Nursing and Midwifery): GANM at ibp.wa-research.ch

<->

In Mevagissey, Cornwall last month browsing in Hurley Books, I came across a copy of Maps and Diagrams: Their Compilation and Construction by F.J. Monkhouse, et al. (1967). At three pounds - a historical bargain. Prompted by the charts above I will scan the cover and share some of the text/ideas here in the near future.

I was saddened to see that in Padstow The Strand Bookshop has closed - apparently in January 2009. As a listed building who knows perhaps it might smell of books once again!

Charity song 'Change for the Better' for World Malaria Day

We [The Butterfly Tree] are launching a charity song, entitled 'Change for the Better' for World Malaria Day, April 25th, to raise funds and global awareness of malaria.

No less that 80% will be used to buy mosquito nets and malaria testing kits.

Your support could save a child's life:

http://www.thebutterflytree.org.uk/pages/2010/africa-malaria-2010/

My source:
LinkedIn Groups, Non Profit Network - MojaLink,
Jane Kaye-Bailey

Health & holistic care in the 21st and 22nd Century

With the technical means at our disposal it is relatively easy to provide information to the masses. Facebook, Google and advertisers are increasingly better versed to target information not just our way, but your way.

Health education and preventive medicine programs depend on the dissemination of health and well-being information, that in turn also relies on access to an expanding digital infrastructure. Equality of access to information communications technologies is now the province of human rights and not just manifestos whether ambitious or binned.

There is much talk of trying to categorise the stage (and hence maturity) of our civilization: hence we talk about being in the information age.

In health care terms this is clearly the case. The provision of information is a key operation and goal of the UN and WHO as per the Millennium Development Goals. Amid the MDG and multiple other related initiatives we need to take care that the habits of many thousands of years do not dilute our efforts.

There is a danger that just as we have broadcast seeds to grow crops,
we will repeat the exercise with technology's reach and
so many seeds will fall on stony ground and
so not take root and
grow.

As people working in the development field know only too well, initiatives like Health Information for All by 2015 and national efforts are not just about the provision of information. In some respects that is not as big a problem as it once was (though is still presents a huge challenge) with community, urban and developmental informatics. Mobile phones and various technologies can get information to people. Increasingly though the problem is one of sufficient or extended literacy. This extends the conventional educational literacy and notion of the 3R's - Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic.

What knowledge do I need about my health and that of the 'other' gender and ethnic groups with whom I share this 'home'. What knowledge do I need in order to live long and then be able to prosper and do so sustainably?

Allied with the problem of literacy is seeking the attention of individuals. This perhaps is why infant, primary and secondary schooling are so important - learning to attend is the most important lesson of all. Especially as health and well-being messages must compete in the multi-spectral communications channels polluted with so much dross.

The MDG make clear the above requirement in Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education:

2.1. Net enrollment and retention in primary education
2.2. Proportion of pupils starting Grade 1 who also reach the last grade of primary education
2.3. Literacy rate of 15-24 year old #

With the requisite baseline - personalised literacies and the information that HIFA2015 and others can provide then individuals can achieve a level of health and well-being knowledge commensurate with living (and dying well) in the 21st century:

and 2nd-by-2nd the

growing proportion of the global population that will know the
22nd century. ...

# Thanks to Remi Akinmade and HIFA-2015 list
http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Host.aspx?Content=Indicators/OfficialList.htm

Literacy on W2tQ
http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search/label/literacy

memo FROM: Classroom health TO: Global health - PSHE education and model standards

Health care and educational professionals learn and adopt the key tools of the trade whilst training. Although for several decades experiential learning has also gained recognition and weight, it is the learning of theory and relation to practice in basic training that shapes the future career. We can describe this as formative professional education. We then hope that this learning and the tools in use are then updated according to research, evidence and best practice. There is much navel gazing at present as to how to measure, nurture, instill and strengthen the character trait of compassion. This applies not only to children, but within nursing.

This issue highlights of course what students bring with them to the lecture theatre, clinical arena and what they take from there to carry them through their professional career. My ideal would be that students have already learned and used Hodges' model as 14-16 year old's, as they negotiate their personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education.

While Hodges' model is a world away from a de jure standard
- that is, defined and enforced by the ISO -
it might just :) become a de facto standard,
because of its widespread adoption in and beyond the classroom.

There is a great opportunity here for Hodges' model in the UK as PSHE education becomes compulsory in 2011. Perhaps you can help in or beyond the UK?

Reference:
Mooney, H. (2009). Can you measure compassion?, Nursing Times, 21 April 2009.

Blog post inspired by adamatronics groups.drupal.org Drupal in Education: Joint effort on a D6 SCORM API

tags: 'preventive medicine' + 'preventive medical sociology'?