Tackling inequalities in health for mental health patients

People living with mental illness suffer from many disadvantages in regard with their health status, among others: earlier death, more preventable diseases,  tiresome side effects from medications. In addition to this, when seeking health care they often receive lower quality care compared to other patients.

This article points out the obstacles that people suffering from mental health face in regard of  accessing health care that is adapted to their vulnerabilities.

Great inequity in health workers distribution around the world

Health workforce shortage is becoming  an urgent problem in high income countries ( including Switzerland). In order to respond to an increasing need,  health workers have been drained from other countries ( including from developing countries).

But when looking at the availability of health workers around the world related to the population needs, there is a great inequity in the distribution of nurses and doctors among countries, which should encourage a more fair distribution of resources and a greater effort in education of health workers across the globe.

Access to healthcare for migrants: a methasynthesis

Access to quality health care for all is a universal goal for health.

The way migrant people access quality healthcare services is yet poor.

This metasynthesis pulled together results about barriers in access to health care  that were described in quality studies retrieved in the international literature.

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Pubmed or Google Scholar?

Some researchers compared Pub Med and Google Scholar. For bio- medical systematic reviews and non expert researchers, Pub Med came out better off. Google scholar seems to be an excellent source of literature but it should not be used alone.  see abstract here

How adverse experiences during childhood influence people's health behavior

MBC Medicine published a study about the influence of adverse childhood experiences ACE (parental separation, domestic violence, physical or verbal abuse, sexual abuse, mental illness, alcohol or drug abuse, and incarceration) on health-harming behaviors H-HB (such as unintended teenage pregnancy, early sexual initiation, smoking, blinge drinking, drugs use, violence, poor diet, low physical activity and incarceration) among adults individuals living en England. One out of two adults across all socio-economic classes, have experienced at least one ACE. These individuals are more likely to develop H-HB and thus to suffer from non-communicable diseases.

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