people over the age of 60 years. At present, around 50 million people in the world are living with dementia, and an estimated 30 million older adults are living with depression. They represent two of the world’s biggest health problems and are increasingly a major public health challenge given that the world’s population is ageing. Both disorders are associated with poorer overall health, socia...

BACKGROUND It is commony claimed that changing the culture of health organisations is a fundamental prerequisite for improving the National Health Service (NHS). Little is currently known about the nature or importance of culture and cultural change in primary care groups and trusts (PCG/Ts) or their constituent general practices. AIMS To investigate the importance of culture and cultural cha...

INTRODUCTION Why is recording ethnicity important? The Race Relations Act of 1968 required all public bodies to consider the race equality implications in all policies. Since then, the official collection of ethnic group statistics has been mandated as an essential first step towards identifying and addressing ethnic inequalities. Capturing ethnic group information in routine health records is ...

In Brazil, the struggle to build an universal, accessible and quality health system can be mistaken at first for an effort to redemocratize of our country, and may be characterized by a resistance to the conservative movement regarding public policies of the last decade. In 1986, the most important health political event of the second half of the Twentieth Century occured: the VIII National Hea...

Mapping the spatial distribution of ecosystem goods and services represents a burgeoning field of research, although how different services covary with one another remains poorly understood. This is particularly true for the covariation of supporting, provisioning and regulating services with cultural services (the non-material benefits people gain from nature). This is largely because of chall...

INTRODUCTION Socio-economic inequalities in basic maternal health interventions exist in Egypt, yet little is known about health-seeking of poor households. This paper assesses levels of maternal health-seeking behaviours in women living in poor households in rural Upper Egypt, and compares these to national averages. Secondly, we construct innovative measures of socio-economic resourcefulness ...

Calls for cultural sensitivity in the design and implementation of human services programs have become a standard response to the increasing diversity among the families and communities being served. In this article, we take a critical look at the construct, using data from a multiyear evaluation of a statewide family support program. We examine how selected, locally implemented programs operat...

Cultural competency is about the ability of individuals and systems to respond respectfully and effectively to the cultural needs of peoples of all cultures. Its general attributes include knowledge, attitudes, skills and professional judgment. In Pacific mental health, 'the cultural' is generally understood to be ethnic culture. Accordingly, Pacific cultural competencies assume ethnic specific...