BACKGROUND Socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with an increased risk of developing heart failure and with inferior health outcomes following diagnosis. METHODS Data for hospitalisations and deaths due to heart failure in the Sydney metropolitan region were extracted from New South Wales hospital records and Australian Bureau of Statistics databases for 1999-2003. Standardised rates were...

Social funds are well-suited for working with decentralized government to deliver local services and strengthen local institutions. This manual sets out the implications of decentralization for the design of social funds both as institutions and as bundles of processes for project selection and implementation. It also discusses how social funds can strengthen community and local government inst...

This commentary reviews contemporary changes in aid modalities and their impact on processes of decentralization. The main change in aid delivery and disbursement considered is towards a greater emphasis on general budget support (GBS) and sector wide approaches (SWAPs). This includes considering the broad questions of firstly, the impact of emphasising GBS on local government and governance sy...

To establish whether a correlation exists between unemployment and suicide the trends in the rates of both among men in Scotland during 1976-86 were studied. Both rates showed rapid increases in the late 1970s and then much slower increases after 1982. In contrast, among women, although the rate of unemployment followed a similar pattern, there was a gradual fall in the rate of suicide. The tre...

• develop and monitor measures of attitude and operational change, including: key informant– agency participation and participation change over the period of the project; changes in the incidence and form of local media knowledge and reporting; incorporation of the SafeComm project and/or its components into the business of local government; and level of integration of cross agency collaboratio...