Human rights group calls on Israel to save Palestinian health services.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Macintyre D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1471930 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:ObjectivesPsychological distress is a problem strongly associated with socio-economic conditions. This study aims to assess rates of psychological distress and 'poor' self-rated health among Palestinian citizens of Israel, who constitute 21% of the population and nearly 50% live in poverty, and compare their psychological distress scores with those of the general Israeli population.DesignThe Health and Environment Survey among Palestinian citizens of Israel (HESPI-2015), included a representative sample of this minority; 2018 individuals aged ?18 were interviewed. The questionnaire included socio-demographic and health-related information, the General Health Questionnaire-12, (GHQ-12) and Self-rating of health (SRH).ResultsSubjects with GHQ-12 global scores of ?17 were considered to have high distress. Low education, female gender, obesity and the presence of chronic diseases were significantly associated with high psychological distress over and above the effect of the other variables. Poor SRH was strongly associated with having a chronic disease and additional risk factors were older age group, low education and high psychological distress. Comparing psychological distress scores of Arabs in Israel with those of the general population showed that 30% of the former were classified as asymptomatic, as compared to 75% in the general population while the proportion of symptomatic or highly symptomatic was 14% in the latter as compared with 45% in the former.ConclusionsIt appears that the burden of poverty, chronic disease and low education in this population, which suffers from multiple stressors, is disproportionate and should be addressed by the authorities, together with concrete plans to improve the education of the younger generations. Clearly, the association between discriminating policies and deprivation with psychological distress is not unique to the case of the Palestinian minority in Israel and therefore this study will allow for the examination and generalization of the current findings to other discriminated and disadvantaged minorities.
| S-EPMC7818903 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundMany primary health care (PHC) clients come in with medically unexplained complaints, leading to frequent consultations and high usage of services and healthcare costs. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of somatic symptom disorder (SSD) among PHC attendees and explore its relation to other mental conditions and risk factors.MethodsA cross-sectional design was used to interview 400 attendees. Men and women aged over 18 years old without a psychiatric diagnosis were invited to participate. The Somatization scale of the Four-Dimensional Symptom Questionnaire was used to assess somatic symptom disorders. It is a valid tool to be used in a PHC setting. We used the Chi-square test and multivariable logistic regression to explore determinant variables.ResultsPrevalence of SSD was 32.5% (95%CI = 27.9-37.1%). The most common symptoms were painful muscles (61.5%) followed by back pain (52.3%). Female gender [adjusted OR = 2.1 (95% CI = 1.2-3.7)], chronic diseases [adjusted OR = 2.4 (95%CI = 1.3-4.5)], depression [adjusted OR = 3.3 (95%CI = 2.0-5.5)], and anxiety [adjusted OR = 2.1 (95%CI = 1.2-3.6)] were all associated with SSD. In addition, frequent primary health care attendance was found to be associated with SSD [adjusted OR = 2.4 (95%CI = 1.4-4.1)].ConclusionsSSD significantly higher among females, patients with chronic diseases, clients with anxiety and depressive disorders, and patients with frequent doctors' visits. Painful muscles and back pain are the most common symptom presented by patients, and this could be used initially by PHC physicians as a signal to consider for screening.
| S-EPMC8240383 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundDecades of conflict in eastern Myanmar have resulted in high prevalence of human rights violations and poor health outcomes. While recent ceasefire agreements have reduced conflict in this area, it is unknown whether this has resulted in concomitant reductions in human rights violations.Methods and findingsWe conducted a two-stage cluster survey of 686 households in eastern Myanmar to assess health status, access to healthcare, food security, exposure to human rights violations and identification of alleged perpetrators over the 12 months prior to January 2012, a period of near-absence of conflict in this region. Household hunger (FANTA-2 scale) was moderate/high in 91 (13.2%) households, while the proportion of households reporting food shortages in each month of 2011 ranged from 19.9% in December to 47.0% in September, with food insecurity peaking just prior to the harvest. Diarrhea prevalence in children was 14.2% and in everyone it was 5.8%. Forced labor was the most common human rights violation (185 households, 24.9%), and 210 households (30.6%) reported experiencing one or more human rights violations in 2011. Multiple logistic regression analysis identified associations between human rights violations and poor health outcomes.ConclusionHuman rights violations and their health consequences persist despite reduced intensity of conflict in eastern Myanmar. Ceasefire agreements should include language that protects human rights, and reconciliation efforts should address the health consequences of decades of human rights violations.
| S-EPMC4550474 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Trans people are exposed to multiple human right violations in clinical practice and research. From 1975 on, gender transition processes have been classified as a mental disorder in diagnostic classification manuals, a classification that was removed recently from ICD, International Classification of Diseases, and continues in DSM, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Trans people in different world regions are forced to accept psychiatric diagnoses and assessment in order to get access to trans health care, subject to reparative therapies and exposed to transphobic institutional and social discrimination and violence. In many countries, gender identity laws include medical requirements, such as psychiatric diagnosis, hormone treatment, genital surgery, or sterilization. In the scientific literature, a frequent pathologization of trans experiences can be identified, by means of pathologizing conceptualizations, terminologies, visual representations, and practices, as well as ethnocentric biases. Trans activism and scholarship have questioned widely the pathologization of trans people in clinical practice and research. Over the last decade, an international trans depathologization movement emerged, demanding, among other claims, the removal of the diagnostic classification of transexuality as a mental disorder, as well as changes in the health care and legal context. International and regional bodies built up a human rights framework related to sexual, gender and bodily diversity that constitute a relevant reference point for trans depathologization activism. The Yogyakarta Principles, published in 2007 and extended in 2017 by means of the Yogyakarta Principles plus 10, establish an application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, and sex characteristics. International and regional human rights bodies included demands related to depathologization in their agenda. More recently, advancements towards trans depathologization can be observed in the diagnostic classifications, as well as in the health care and legal context. At the same time, trans people continue being exposed to pathologization and transphobic violence. The Human Rights in Patient Care (HRPC) framework offers a human right-based approach on health care practices. The paper aims at analyzing the shared human rights focus and potential alliances between the trans depathologization perspective and the HRPC framework.
| S-EPMC7031999 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We introduce and make publicly available a large corpus of digitized primary source human rights documents which are published annually by monitoring agencies that include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and the United States Department of State. In addition to the digitized text, we also make available and describe document-term matrices, which are datasets that systematically organize the word counts from each unique document by each unique term within the corpus of human rights documents. To contextualize the importance of this corpus, we describe the development of coding procedures in the human rights community and several existing categorical indicators that have been created by human coding of the human rights documents contained in the corpus. We then discuss how the new human rights corpus and the existing human rights datasets can be used with a variety of statistical analyses and machine learning algorithms to help scholars understand how human rights practices and reporting have evolved over time. We close with a discussion of our plans for dataset maintenance, updating, and availability.
| S-EPMC4587949 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In line with its half century old penal code, Ghana currently criminalizes and penalizes behaviors of some key populations - populations deemed to be at higher risk of acquiring or transmitting Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Men who have sex with men (MSM), and sex workers (SWs) fit into this categorization. This paper provides an analysis of how enactment and implementation of rights-limiting laws not only limit rights, but also amplify risk and vulnerability to HIV in key and general populations. The paper derives from a project that assessed the ethics sensitivity of key documents guiding Ghana's response to its HIV epidemic. Assessment was guided by leading frameworks from public health ethics, and relevant articles from the international bill of rights.Ghana's response to her HIV epidemic does not adequately address the rights and needs of key populations. Even though the national response has achieved some public health successes, palpable efforts to address rights issues remain nascent. Ghana's guiding documents for HIV response include no advocacy for decriminalization, depenalization or harm reduction approaches for these key populations. The impact of rights-restricting codes on the nation's HIV epidemic is real: criminalization impedes key populations' access to HIV prevention and treatment services. Given that they are bridging populations, whatever affects the Ghanaian key populations directly, affects the general population indirectly. The right to the highest attainable standard of health, without qualification, is generally acknowledged as a fundamental human right. Unfortunately, this right currently eludes the Ghanaian SW and MSM. The paper endorses decriminalization as a means of promoting this right. In the face of opposition to decriminalization, the paper proposes specific harm reduction strategies as approaches to promote health and uplift the diminished rights of key populations. Thus the authors call on Ghana to remove impediments to public health services provision to these populations. Doing so will require political will and sufficient planning toward prioritizing HIV prevention, care and treatment programming for key populations.
| S-EPMC5541754 | biostudies-other
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC4813610 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAlthough recent reports suggest that service users in West African psychiatric facilities are exposed to poor quality of care and human rights violations, evidence is lacking on the extent and profile of specific deficits in the services provided to persons with mental health conditions.AimsTo evaluate the quality of care and respect of human rights in psychiatric facilities in four West African countries, The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, using the World Health Organization QualityRights Toolkit.MethodTrained research workers collected information through observation, review of records and interviews with service users, caregivers and staff. Independent panels of assessors used the information to assign scores to the criteria, standards and themes of the QualityRights Toolkit.ResultsThe study revealed significant gaps in these facilities. The rights to an adequate standard of living and to enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health were poorly promoted. Adherence to the right to exercise legal capacity and the right to personal liberty and security was almost absent. Severe shortcomings in the promotion of the right to live independently and be included in the community were reported.ConclusionsInadequate appreciation of service users' rights, lack of basic approaches to protect them and the non-promotion of rights-based services in these facilities are major problems that need to be addressed. Although it recognises the resource constraints and need for more human and financial resources, the study also identifies critical areas and challenges that require significant changes at the facility level.
| S-EPMC8811781 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe complicity of the South African health sector in apartheid and the international relevance of human rights as a professional obligation prompted moves to include human rights competencies in the curricula of health professionals in South Africa. A Train-the-Trainers course in Health and Human Rights was established in 1998 to equip faculty members from health sciences institutions nationwide with the necessary skills, attitudes and knowledge to teach human rights to their students. This study followed up participants to determine the extent of curriculum implementation, support needed as well as barriers encountered in integrating human rights into health sciences teaching and learning.MethodsA survey including both quantitative and qualitative components was distributed in 2007 to past course participants from 1998-2006 via telephone, fax and electronic communication.ResultsOut of 162 past participants, 46 (28%) completed the survey, the majority of whom were still employed in academic settings (67%). Twenty-two respondents (48%) implemented a total of 33 formal human rights courses into the curricula at their institutions. Respondents were nine times more likely (relative risk 9.26; 95% CI 5.14-16.66) to implement human rights education after completing the training. Seventy-two extracurricular activities were offered by 21 respondents, many of whom had successfully implemented formal curricula. Enabling factors for implementation included: prior teaching experience in human rights, general institutional support and the presence of allies - most commonly coworkers as well as deans. Frequently cited barriers to implementation included: budget restrictions, time constraints and perceived apathy of colleagues or students. Overall, respondents noted personal enrichment and optimism in teaching human rights.ConclusionThis Train-the-Trainer course provides the historical context, educational tools, and collective motivation to incorporate human rights educational initiatives at health sciences institutions. Increased implementation of human rights instruction, both formally and extracurricularly, has demonstrated the training's significance not only within academic institutions but more broadly across the health sector. Coworkers are vital allies in teaching human rights to health sciences students, helping to alleviate institutional barriers. Training fellow staff members and those in key leadership roles is noted as vital to the sustainability of human rights education.
| S-EPMC3157433 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Visual impairment due to inherited ophthalmic disorders is amongst the most common disabilities observed in populations practicing consanguineous marriages. Here we investigated the molecular genetic basis of an unselected broad range of ophthalmic disorders in 20 consanguineous families from Arab villages of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Most patients had little or very poor prior clinical workup and were recruited in a field study. Homozygosity mapping followed by candidate gene sequencing applying conventional Sanger sequencing or targeted next generation sequencing was performed in six families. In the remaining 14 families, one affected subject per family was chosen for whole exome sequencing. We discovered likely disease-causing variants, all homozygous, in 19 of 20 independent families (95%) including a previously reported novel disease gene for congenital nystagmus associated with foveal hypoplasia. Moreover, we found a family in which disease-causing variants for two collagenopathies - Stickler and Knobloch syndrome - segregate within a large sibship. Nine of the 19 distinct variants observed in this study were novel. Our study demonstrated a very high molecular diagnostic yield for a highly diverse spectrum of rare ophthalmic disorders in Arab patients from Israel and the Palestinian Authority, even with very limited prior clinical investigation. We conclude that 'genetic testing first' may be an economic way to direct clinical care and to support proper genetic counseling and risk assessment in these families.
| S-EPMC7253446 | biostudies-literature