摘要:

The United States is engaged in a great debate about the future of its health system. In that debate, attention is disproportionately focused on paying for illness care rather than creating a healthy public. Significant change in thought and action will be required for our health system to serve all citizens effectively. Improvements in health status will require that the determinants of health be effectively addressed, in addition to improving health promotion and disease prevention and modifying approaches to disease diagnosis and therapy. Health and illness are conditioned by the interaction of people with their environment, yet health policy decision makers often ignore this reality. Both science and an ethic of humane concern must form the base of decision making related to health. The linkage of health care professionals with the public in a manner that empowers communities to assess and prioritize their own health-related problems can foster a strong community-based demand for ethical and humane decision making. Community participation in the elucidation and solution of existing health problems is a prerequisite for creating the healthiest population possible.

ISSN:0160-6379    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1994

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

While the creative implications of diversity are endless, reactions to those who are different have included fear, hatred, and war in many parts of the world. Breaches of the moral imperative of “Thou shalt not kill” have placed the world in the precarious position of dealing with endless forms of retaliation and destruction. International public health workers who live and work in countries in conflict face unprecedented challenges in serving as the honest brokers between factions unable to view diversity as a source of strength rather than as a limitation. This is especially critical in primary health care where health professionals attempt to stimulate governments and communities to implement primary health care strategies. Health workers must examine their own fears and prejudices and work to strengthen society's structures, including the family, in coming to terms with the reality of an increasingly mixed and diverse world. A call is made for international laws, policies, and practices that protect all with full disclosure of those that violate the rights of others. The key role that international workers play is underscored in ensuring a healthy world for the next century.

ISSN:0160-6379    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1994

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

As the year 2000 approaches, it becomes necessary to examine the overall achievements of the primary health care (PHC) strategy and to identify problems that continue to require the attention of the health care professions and health services for continuing efforts to strengthen PHC in order to obtain costeffective performance, to improve the health status of the most vulnerable groups, and to extend health services to all the population, especially to those in greatest need. Advances in science and technology should be used adequately, not only to maximize their benefits but also to avoid further discrimination in the delivery of health services. Ethical considerations, preservation of human rights, and protection of the environment should permeate PHC strategies and programs. Emphasis is on the principal roles and interventions of health care professionals in policy making, strategic planning, administrative and operational action to build access to health care, and fostering individual, family, and communal responsibility, self-reliance and self-respect.

ISSN:0160-6379    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1994

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

With limited exceptions, few economic or technologic benefits of recent development have trickled down to the world's poor. Poverty has increased rapidly, and developing countries are becoming increasingly marginalized. This is due in part to the fact that the poor are the hardest hit by the most common environmental problems. To date, too much emphasis has been placed on economic growth and too little on human development or social progress. Both of these strategies are important—sustained economic growth to improve the standard of living as well as investment in the people themselves in terms of education and health. However, it is the nature and impact of such growth that matters. While many developed countries have implemented strategic plans for sustained economic progress, the crucial question is whether such growth is environmentally sustainable over time. To attain environmental security, all people, especially women, must be involved in environmental planning

ISSN:0160-6379    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1994

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

For many years the concept of human rights has been debated. Philosophers, writers, and governments have defined and redefined the term to include civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights as well. In the simplest sense, however, human rights implies that all humans have worth, all humans should be treated with dignity, all humans deserve lives free from abuse and discrimination. This, however, is theory, the reality being that nearly every country in the world today faces—at least to some degree— instances of homelessness, poverty, senseless violence, lack of health care, and brutal conflicts, all of which severely affect physical, emotional, and social health. The role of health care professionals must be to ameliorate such suffering, and yet history bears testimony to repeated incidents of physicians and health care workers having served as instruments of torture or death out of fear of reprisal, out of a misplaced sense of obligation, or even for personal profit. We must thus examine the past and present role of the health care professional in protecting human rights and advocating social justice and equity for all. Illustrations presented here have been drawn from events in the United States, Central and South America, South Africa, and selected countries.

ISSN:0160-6379    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1994

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Cultural and geographic differences between groups and citizens of many nations are often a source of division in viewpoints on politics, religion, environment, and even health. Both division and unity were evident at the Vllth International Women and Health Meeting held at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda in September 1993. Some issues were of vital concern to all participants, but their viewpoints were disparate and often the subject of fierce debate. In fairness and in honesty, it must be pointed out that the differences deal far more often with answering the question “how” than they do with “what.” Many opinions were voiced that represent women's concrete experiences of existing in areas of war, starvation, and decimation by disease. They must be heard, if only to truly understand the harsh reality of their existence and the positions they advocate.

ISSN:0160-6379    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1994

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Adequate primary care services are crucial to health care delivery systems in both the developed and the developing world. The characteristics of family medicine have made it an attractive model for achieving this goal for an increasing number of countries around the world. Family medicine can be viewed as the medical application of the primary health care (PHC) model, serving as the interface between PHC and the traditional health care system. The developmental process for family medicine in a country's health care delivery system typically involves three phases: (1) clinical, (2) political, and (3) academic. Consultation and sharing of expertise in the planning and establishment of new programs present a wonderful opportunity for international collaboration. A model of consultation is described, along with a sequence of steps for establishing a new family medicine program in a health care delivery system

ISSN:0160-6379    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1994

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) conference at Alma-Ata in 1978, the focus of international health care has increasingly emphasized not only primary health care (PHC), but also the concept of patients as partners in responsibility for their own care. No longer are patients or clients expected to be passive recipients of treatment, but rather to be active participants in their own health care with increasing emphasis on preventive health measures. One such participative measure is the use of patient-held medical records in which the patient records data. While the concept of patient-held medical records is not a new one, its popularity has increased in recent years, particularly regarding home-based maternal records (HBMRs). HBMRs can be used during the prenatal, intranatal, postnatal, and interpregnancy periods, and they have been found to be successfully used to assist in recognizing problems during pregnancy, encouraging self-care, and assisting with patient teaching, even with illiterate women. While more widely used in developing countries, these records serve as an excellent example of a health technology that could also be employed in developed countries including the United States.

ISSN:0160-6379    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1994

数据来源: OVID

ISSN:0160-6379    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1994

数据来源: OVID

ISSN:0160-6379    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1994

数据来源: OVID