China
Africa
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Background
Published in Bo Chen, Mental Health Law in China, 2023
In addition to the financial factor that always matters, some other reasons may also contribute to the underdevelopment of community-based services. For example, there may also exist lack of coordination, as the community service is usually conceptualised as community rehabilitation and responsible by the Disabled People’s Federation at different levels, while psychiatric hospitals and the Ministry of Health deal with treatment. As mentioned earlier, the boundary is not always clear. Psychiatric hospitals are running their own rehabilitation programmes within hospitals too, and, therefore, conflicts of interest may arise preventing hospitals from transferring people back into the community with proper services.82As a result, some new community programmes have emerged. A recent example is the Clubhouses for people with mental illness, which aim to provide a safe place for members/users and help them ‘regain a normal life’.83At least seven Clubhouses are operating in China, thanks to the enormous endeavour of founders and precious support from local governments. Nevertheless, the process of nationwide spread has been very slow.84
Organisational Deficiencies in Developing Countries and the Role of Global Surgery
Published in Alaaeldin (Alaa) Azmi Ahmad, Aakash Agarwal, Early-Onset Scoliosis, 2021
The predominant view, at least in advanced economies, is that the financial needs of developing countries are dire, without equally appreciating other institutional and organisational deficiencies that characterise economic underdevelopment. As a result, largely financial fixes, such as material donations and doctors from developed countries volunteering to perform surgeries for free, are popular. However, in the absence of a more holistic vision, such assistance remains temporary, operating more as a stopgap measure than a purveyor of structural change. Donor- and volunteer-exhaustion is not uncommon, and when funds dry up, it becomes clear that the local surgical system is still stagnant, with little lasting improvement to surgical care quality or outcomes.
Equity in health services and policy advice for developing countries
Published in Songül Çınaroğlu, Equity and Healthcare Reform in Developing Economies, 2020
The number of highly skilled healthcare professionals in developing countries is low, and many developing countries have a shortage of trained doctors. Rural areas are particularly affected negatively by the lack of availability of doctors (Wilson et al., 2011). For these reasons, clinical and nonclinical factors underlying the increase in cesarean delivery rates must be better understood (Zhang et al., 2019). In countries with social and economic underdevelopment, lack of education contributes significantly to the difficulties experienced by women delivering in healthcare facilities (Amutah-Onukagha et al., 2017). In contrast, countries with strong healthcare systems, which provide integrated, continuous, high-quality care, both routinely and in an emergency, are more likely to prevent adverse outcomes faced by women with lower levels of education. In addition to ensuring universal education as a key policy, low-cost, effective interventions implemented within strengthened healthcare systems are needed to prevent maternal morbidity and mortality and to combat maternal inequities (Tunçalp et al., 2014).
Realising economic and social rights for children with communication and swallowing disability: Sustainable Development Goals 1, 8 and 10
Published in International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2023
Stephanie Weir, Anna Arstein-Kerslake, Tricia Eadie, Keith McVilly
In our analysis of the issues outlined here, we have identified that violations of the economic and social rights of children with communication and/or swallowing disability present a number of challenges to the realisation of the sustainable development agenda. Firstly, there is a disproportionate impact of both unsustainable development and underdevelopment on children generally (Arts, 2019), and on children with communication and/or swallowing disability specifically. This is because the principle of progressive realisation means that any threats to State resources and national budgets, such as natural disasters and climate crises, can threaten the realisation of economic and social rights (Nolan, 2019), which primarily affects the State’s economic dependents. As a cohort with additional and typically high-cost requirements to access adequate nutrition, good health and well-being, and quality education, children with communication and/or swallowing disability are particularly vulnerable to not having their social needs for resources, therapeutic services and specialised supports met, as a result of such threats. Thus, realising the social rights of children with communication and/or swallowing disability through adequate, equitable and sustainable public budgeting is essential to the realisation of the sustainable development goals of zero hunger (SDG 2), good health and well-being (SDG 3), and quality education (SDG 4).
A call for a new perspective in social work and health care: the developmental-clinical social work perspective. COVID-19 pandemic through the human rights perspective
Published in Social Work in Health Care, 2022
Robert Kudakwashe Chigangaidze
COVID-19 as a pandemic has greatly exposed underdevelopment, socio-economic inequalities, and poverty prevalent in many cities, regions, and the globe at large (Krouse, 2020; Wasdani & Prasad, 2020). Reciprocally, the pandemic will exacerbate the global prevalence of extreme poverty (UNDP, 2020; Gelaw et al., 2020; Reeves & Rothwell, 2020). A crisis generates a perfect storm for corruption to flourish as the needs of the moment overwhelm fiscal caution (Putz, 2020). COVID-19 is a wakeup call to national leaders on the need to fight corruption, underdevelopment, and divergence of development funds and also abuse of resources meant for the general population. Social work will be docile if it refuses to assume its political stance to safeguard the human rights of people. Social work will be just another agent of social control if it remains silent to the socio-economic inequalities perpetuated by oppressors and exacerbating the impacts of COVID-19. Social work losses its humanness if it remains silent to the criminality of depriving people the rights to development, health, housing, and adequate food and nutrition to mention but a few. The rights to development need not be politicized or monopolized. Social work is a catalyst to social change and not an agent to social control.
The national drug formulary listing process for orphan drugs in South Korea: narrative review focused on pricing and reimbursement pathways
Published in Expert Opinion on Orphan Drugs, 2021
In South Korea, the Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety formulates ODs, which should satisfy two conditions related to the number of patients and the existence of alternatives [56]. In other words, drugs used for a disease with 20,000 or fewer patients (population with the disease) and diseases for which adequate treatments or drugs have not yet been developed, or drugs that significantly improve safety or efficacy compared to existing alternatives, are designated as OD. Moreover, even if such conditions are not met, the Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety can still, by taking into consideration the current supply and demand system, acknowledge it as a drug, and designate it as an OD if a lack of access may cause significant problems in patients’ treatment. There are two procedures for OD designation in the approval and underdevelopment stages. An analysis of the results regarding OD designation and approval in South Korea during the last 10 years revealed that 165 drugs were designated as ODs and 127 applications for ODs were approved [57,58] (Table 1). In the United States, 200–300 ODs were designated, 30–50 ODs were approved per year, 100–200 ODs were designated, and 10–20 ODs were approved per year [4,5,9,28]. Compared to other countries’ OD designation and approval status, the number of designated and approved ODs in South Korea is small, but considering the number of designated ODs, the number of approved ODs is not small.