BACKGROUND In India, Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committees (VHSNCs) are participatory community health forums, but there is little information about their composition, functioning and effectiveness. Our study examined VHSNCs as enablers of participatory action for community health in two rural districts in two states of eastern India - West Singhbhum in Jharkhand and Kendujhar, in ...

Well developed disaster plans are essential in today's atmosphere of natural and man-made disasters. We describe the problems faced by a community hospital on the Mississippi Gulf Coast during and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Because of significant damage to surrounding health care facilities, this hospital was called upon to provide care to a large section of the affected population. In s...

In the last five years, medical care policies for prisons in the Argentine Federal Penitentiary Service were developed by the previous Medical Care Assistance Office of this Institution to improve primary medical healthcare. Policies were applied with heterogeneous criteria in comparison to the ones established by the Ministry of Health. This may be why I am interested in taking a deeper look a...

The disproportionate effects of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic on many Canadian Aboriginal communities have drawn attention to the vulnerability of these communities in terms of health outcomes in the face of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. Exploring the particular challenges facing these communities is essential to improving public health planning. In alignment with the objectives of the ...

introduction: health information plays a vital role in managers' decision making and planning. health information in the form of medical records is also useful for caregivers, quality assessment, financial payments, legal measures, education, research and planning. in this study, to examine the managers and personnel's viewpoints about the application of medical records. methods and material: i...

State and local health departments (LHDs) are increasingly conducting community health assessments, using models such as Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships. Within the peer-reviewed literature, relevant Web sites, and textbooks on health planning, there is limited practical guidance for bridging data collection and prioritization. The purpose of this article was to provide ...

The value of community development (CD) practices is well documented in the health promotion literature; it is a foundational strategy outlined in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Despite the importance of collaborative action with communities to enhance individual and community health and well-being, there exists a major gap between the evidence for CD and the actual extent to which CD...

As in many countries, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a significant health problem in Indonesia. This assessment of Indonesia’s community health system identified areas that could be strengthened in order to promote the development and implementation of a community health program for NCD prevention and health promotion in the country. In doing so, key components of a well-functioning commun...

This paper takes a population health planning and policy view of the issues in place and health raised by the research articles in this collection. The planning and policy issues are reducing health inequities and strengthening neighbourhoods. Regardless of the state of the art of place and health research, targeted social investments are being made to support neighbourhood infrastructure and c...