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The qualitative study presented in this article describes the violence experienced by children with disabilities in Guinea, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Togo from the perspectives of children, community members, and disability stakeholders. The study contributes to the literature on violence against children with disabilities, which in West Africa is largely nonexistent. 

A qualitative study design guided data generation with a total of 419 children, community members, and disability stakeholders. Participants were selected using purposive sampling. Stakeholders shared their observations of or experiences of violence against children with disabilities in their community in interviews and focus groups

BMC Public Health 18:153 2018

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5057-x

Background

Little is known about the interventions required to build the capacity of mental health policy-makers and planners in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We conducted a systematic review with the primary aim of identifying and synthesizing the evidence base for building the capacity of policy-makers and planners to strengthen mental health systems in LMICs.

Methods

We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Knowledge, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, LILACS, ScieELO, Google Scholar and Cochrane databases for studies reporting evidence, experience or evaluation of capacity-building of policy-makers, service planners or managers in mental health system strengthening in LMICs. Reports in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French or German were included. Additional papers were identified by hand-searching references and contacting experts and key informants. Database searches yielded 2922 abstracts and 28 additional papers were identified. Following screening, 409 full papers were reviewed, of which 14 fulfilled inclusion criteria for the review. Data were extracted from all included papers and synthesized into a narrative review.

Results

Only a small number of mental health system-related capacity-building interventions for policy-makers and planners in LMICs were described. Most models of capacity-building combined brief training with longer term mentorship, dialogue and/or the establishment of networks of support. However, rigorous research and evaluation methods were largely absent, with studies being of low quality, limiting the potential to separate mental health system strengthening outcomes from the effects of associated contextual factors.

Conclusions

This review demonstrates the need for partnership approaches to building the capacity of mental health policy-makers and planners in LMICs, assessed rigorously against pre-specified conceptual frameworks and hypotheses, utilising longitudinal evaluation and mixed quantitative and qualitative approaches.

This article argues that there is a need to improve HIV testing for fathers, increase understanding of the fathers and fathering and approach childbirth from a family perspective

Little is known about the vulnerabilities faced by the children of injection drug users and female sex workers, their sources of resilience or programmes providing services to their families. This article synthesises the evidence from a literature review and offers preliminary descriptive data from Ukraine and Zambia

The Collaborative HIV Prevention and Adolescent Mental Health Program (CHAMP) is a family-focused, evidence-based intervention that has been tested in low-income contexts in the US, Caribbean and South Africa. This paper gives a description of the theoretical and empirical bases of the development and implementation of CHAMP in the US and South Africa

This is an introduction to a supplement of nine articles on family-centred services for children affected by HIV and AIDS

Rather than prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV programmes focusing on biomedical interventions during the perinatal period, this article argues that they should address the health needs of the whole family

Kalajatha is a popular, traditional art form of folk theatre depicting various life processes of a local socio-cultural setting. It is an effective medium of mass communication in the Indian sub-continent especially in rural areas. Using this medium, an operational feasibility health education programme was carried out for malaria control. This study was carried out under the primary health care system involving the local community and various potential partners