THE LANCET From public to planetary health: a manifesto

A new vision for planetary health

This manifesto for transforming public health calls for a social movement to support collective public health action at all levels of society. Our aim is to respond to the threats we face: threats to human health and wellbeing, threats to the sustainability of our civilisation, and threats to the natural and human-made systems that support us.

Our vision is for a planet that nourishes and sustains the diversity of life with which we co-exist and on which we depend. Our goal is to create a movement for planetary health.

If you agree with the broad thrust of the manifesto (not necessarily every detail), please register your agreement here.

Call for Papers: Special Issue – Community Informatics and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The Journal of Community Informatics (http://ci-journal.net)

Abstract submissions due June 15, 2013
Full papers due September 1, 2013
Anticipated publication date February 1, 2014

The international peer-reviewed Journal of Community Informatics (http://ci-journal.net/) is a medium for the communication of research of interest to a global network of academics, community informatics practitioners and national and multilateral policy makers. A special issue of the journal will be devoted to examining the relationship between Community Informatics and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Community Informatics (CI) is the study and practice of enabling communities and the grassroots to improve their lives through Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). This special issue will focus on how community-based use of ICTs can contribute to both the achievement of specific MDG targets and the development of the post-2015 global development agenda. The issue is expected to be published in early 2014 and thus provide inputs to ongoing discussions on the finalization of a new global development agenda.

Call for papers

The field of Community Informatics seeks to explore the potential of ICTs and their applications for social and economic development at the community level. It particularly seeks to ensure that marginalized individuals and communities can benefit from the opportunities that ICTs can provide. Active and meaningful participation by people at the community/grassroots level is arguably one critical element for the successful achievement of the MDGs – and any other development priorities, for that matter. As demonstrated in different parts of the world, ICTs enable the participation of people and give voice to the voiceless.

For this special issue, we are inviting original, unpublished research, points of view, case studies, reviews and field notes. All research papers will be double-blind peer-reviewed. Insights and analytical perspectives from practitioners and policy makers in the form of notes from the field or case studies are also encouraged. These will not be peer-reviewed but will be assessed as to their suitability for publication.

Expected topics in this special issue include:

1. National and local policies needed to foster synergies between CI and the MDGs
2. Local government, CI and ICTs: how to create a sound ecosystem for development and MDG achievement?
3. Enabling communities to participate in local MDG decision making processes via ICTs
4. CI and access to information and open data related to MDG development priorities
5. CI and local participation strategies to meet MDGs
6. CI and social inclusion of groups targeted in MDGs
7. CI and local MDG related capacity development: can ICTs close or widen the gap?
8. The potential role for CI in the post-2015 global development agenda;
9. Assessing the empirical evidence on the role of community ICTs in the MDGs to date

And specifically related to individual MDG targets:

10. Using community-based ICTs to address extreme poverty and hunger
11. CI approaches to achieving universal primary education;
12. CI contributions to the promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment
13. CI influence to in the elimination of child mortality and achievement of maternal health
14. CI approaches to combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
15. CI and environmental sustainability
16. CI as a component of national and regional health information systems
17. CI contributions to developing global MDG partnerships

Special Issue Editors:

Charles Dhewa – CEO, Knowledge Transfer Africa (Pvt) Ltd, charles@knowledgetransafrica.com / charlesdhewa7@gmail.com
Jude Genilo – Head, Media Studies and Journalism Department, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, jude.genilo@ulab.edu.bd / jgenilo@yahoo.com
Raul Zambrano – Cluster Leader, Senior Policy Advisor, ICTD and e-governance, UNDP, raul@undp.org
Chris Zielinski – CEO, International Alliance on Information for All, chris@chriszielinski.com

Special Issue Assistant
Michel Castagné – castagne@alumni.ubc.ca

Abstracts should be sent to the Assistant castagne@alumni.ubc.ca no later than June 30, 2013.

Jordan JNC Conference: Mental health and stigma, Student nurse's aptitude and the MDGs

There were a great many fascinating talks at the conference in Amman. The following caught my attention:

Dr Heyam Dalky on Perception and Coping with Stigma of Mental Illness: Arab Families' Perspectives

Since I trained in the late 1970s there has been a marked positive change in the social stigma associated with medical and mental health conditions. People are by and large more enlightened regards epilepsy for example. Although perhaps some of the progress can be related to medication, medicine management and community follow-up. Mental health professionals and services are aware of the potential damage that a diagnosis of 'schizophrenia' can inflict on young adults. Despite any sense of progress I might see, there is much still to be done as campaigns such as Time To Change attest.

It was very useful then to revisit the historical development of thought in stigma. Dr Dalky also shared global insights into stigma perception within families by citing research in a range of countries; for example, in Jordan, Morocco, Sweden, Germany, China, Malaysia, and Ethiopia.

Within Hodges' model the individual, as in the self, is given a pivotal and yet mobile place (transferable from the top of the model to the center) this led me to the concept of self-stigma (Corrigan, 2009) as I draft a paper on h2cm, case formulation and diagrams.

In her presentation Dr Dalky notes:

• Link and Phelan (2001) defined stigma as the co-occurrence of the components of: 
• labeling, stereotyping, separation, status loss, and discrimination.
• “self-stigma” or “stigma perception,” is the extent to which individuals believe others stigmatize them because of who they are.

They say travel broadens the mind and listening to this presentation you really see the difficulties, objectives and aspirations that not only practitioners share but families and our clients too.

Heyam F. Dalky, PhD, RN, Jordan University of Science & Technology, Irbid, Jordan
 

Ever since my engineering aptitude was measured in the mid 1970s by predicting the movement of a series of gears I've always held a special place for aptitude and attitude, as reflected here on W2tQ.

Mrs. Maxie Andrade, et al. presentation Aptitude Towards Nursing: Is it Measurable? highlighted a central challenge within nurse education.

Nurse training represents a major personal investment for the student (their family too in many cases), the educational institutions and societies concerned. As a sign-off mentor I assess third year students on their final placement. This is a great responsibility that is usually a privilege, but it can be a frustration at the loss entailed for a failing student.

Mrs Andrade defined aptitude:

Is a condition, a quality or a set of qualities in an individual, which is indicative of the probable extent to which one will be able to acquire under suitable training some knowledge, skill or composite of knowledge, understanding and skill

Ref: Mangal S L. General Psychology. Fifteenth reprint. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd; 2008.

The main questions:

Do nursing students possess the required ability (aptitude) to become an effective nurse?

What abilities do we really expect from nursing students?

The development of a tool to measure aptitude was described, reviewing the literature. Are there any existing tools within nursing? What exactly should a tool measure? Statistics and results were listed. This was a very interesting presentation and of particular interest to me.

Mrs. Maxie Andrade, Asst. Professor, Manipal College of Nursing Manipal, Manipal University


There was also a reminder of the time left to achieve the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] c/o Prof. Hester C. Klopper's keynote: The nursing education tipping point: Forces of change. 

Less than 1,000 days and that was last month.

One thing I noticed and a sign of the issues in the Eastern Mediterranean is that the JNC conference website has proved unavailable at times. It is accessible as I post this.

Andrade M. Perceptions of health care consumers, deliverers and nurse educators on nurses, nursing practice and nursing education system. Manipal University, Manipal: 2010. (Dissertation work).
Andrade M. Choice of nursing career: Pleasure or pressure. International Journal of Nursing Education. 2012; 4(1); 42-44. 
Corrigan, P.W., Larson, J.E., Rüsch, N. (2009). Self-stigma and the “why try” effect: impact on life goals and evidence-based practices. World Psychiatry. 8(2): 75–81.