OBJECTIVE To understand the knowledge and services of informal providers and to explore their role in addressing the human resource gap in Uttar Pradesh, India, within the context of maternal health. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study is exploratory in nature, conducted in four blocks of four districts of Uttar Pradesh state, India. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 114 informal pro...

PURPOSE This study examines need for and use of services from both the adolescent's and the service provider's viewpoints. METHODS The Youth Services Project interviewed 792 youths from the juvenile justice, education, primary health care, and child welfare sectors (200 each); gathered anonymous tallies of the mental health of youthful clients at each sector; and conducted focus groups with p...

OBJECTIVE This study examined rates of contact with primary care and mental health care professionals by individuals before they died by suicide. METHOD The authors reviewed 40 studies for which there was information available on rates of health care contact and examined age and gender differences among the subjects. RESULTS Contact with primary care providers in the time leading up to suic...

BACKGROUND There is need for new information about the socio-economic and geographic differences in health seeking and expenditures on many health conditions, so to help to design interventions that will reduce inequity in utilisation of healthcare services and ensure universal coverage. OBJECTIVES The paper contributes additional knowledge about health seeking and economic burden of differen...

Patient presentation in primary care ranges from psychosocial considerations to physical and mental health concerns including serious mental illness. To best prepare for addressing all aspects of health, integrated primary care practices should be equipped with the expertise and resources to appropriately treat the range of presentations. We conducted a literature review of research articles to...

BACKGROUND The diversity of mental health and substance abuse services (MHS) available to service users is seen as an indicator of the quality of the service system. In most countries MHS are provided by a mix of public, private and third sector providers. In Finland, officially, the municipalities are responsible for organizing the services needed, but the real extent and roles of private and ...

Background: Tariff setting in healthcare is an important control knob affecting the quality, access and cost of services. As part of Iran Health Transformation Plan (HTP) in 2014, the relative value of health care and services was increased to motivate healthcare providers to deliver high quality services. This study aimed to examine the impact of HTP on health services tariffs. Methods: This ...