Social services

INTRODUCTION: Children and youth with disabilities and special healthcare needs, and their families, have been uniquely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the voices of children themselves are still not well represented in the existing literature. METHODS: This qualitative descriptive study used a combination of visual methods and interviews to learn about the experiences of Canadian children with disabilities (n=18) and their parents (n=14) during the COVID pandemic and into the post-pandemic period...

The incidence of cancer in Europe has been increasing in recent years. Despite this, cancer prevention has remained a low priority in health policies. Cancer is one of the main causes of mortality among people experiencing homelessness, who continue to have difficulties accessing prevention programs. A strategy that has been tested to favor cancer prevention is the health navigator figure. The objective of CANCERLESS project is to implement this model among populations experiencing homelessness in four European countries to foster the prevention and early detection of cancer...

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have mandated that hospitals implement measures to screen social determinants of health (SDoH). We sought to report on available SDoH screening tools. PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, as well as the grey literature were searched (1980 to November 2023). The included studies were US-based, written in English, and examined a screening tool to assess SDoH. Thirty studies were included in the analytic cohort. The number of questions in any given SDoH assessment tool varied considerably and ranged from 5 to 50 (mean: 16...

OBJECTIVE: With the accelerated population aging, multimorbidity has become an important healthcare issue. However, few studies have examined multimorbidity and its impact on the use of medical and long-term care services in Japan. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the association between multimorbidity and the use of medical and long-term care services among older adults living in the depopulated mountainous areas of Japan. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using insurance claims data from late-stage medical insurance and long-term care insurance (April 2017 to March 2018) for older adults ≥75 years residing in a mountainous area in the Tottori prefecture...

BACKGROUND: Healthcare systems constantly evolve to improve care quality and resource utilization. One way is implementing Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC) an economic approach. This scoping review aims to identify and describe the literature on VBHC, particularly its psychosocial aspects, to uncover research gaps. METHOD: The review followed the PRISMA guidelines for Scoping Reviews. We took the following 14 steps: (a) defining the research question; (b) identifying relevant studies; (c) selecting studies; (d) 15 mapping data; (e) collecting, synthesizing and reporting results...

Countries fundamentally base macro and micro decision making in the field of health on economic considerations, the budgetary impact of technologies being a major criterion. Nevertheless, the value of the technology of interest and its dimensions are more complex if we seek to take decisions based on the value itself. The use of structured and explicit approaches that require the assessment of multiple criteria that reflect the dimensions of this value may significantly improve the quality of the decision making...

INTRODUCTION: Studies on the organisation of care and the power dynamic between providers and patients with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are rare. This study aims to describe the patient-provider relationship and explore the challenges to optimal and patient-centred care for HIV patients. METHODS: This was a qualitative exploratory descriptive study using in-depth individual interviews and focus group discussions. In total, 17 individual interviews and 5 focus group discussions were conducted...

OBJECTIVES: Meeting the needs of people accessing healthcare from ethnic minority (EM) groups is of great importance. An insight into their experience is needed to improve healthcare providers' ability to align their support with the perspectives and needs of families. This review provides insight into how families from EM backgrounds experience children's palliative care (CPC) by answering the question, "What are the experiences of EM families of children's palliative care across developed countries?" METHODS: A systematic search of articles from 6 databases (Scopus, Medline, Web of Science, APA PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Global Health) with no limit to the date of publication...

Mild stroke survivors seldom receive occupational therapy services as their deficits are assumed to be minor enough to not affect their daily occupations. Yet many mild stroke survivors report deficits in self-care performance and social participation. This study investigates person and environment factors influencing self-care performance and social participation among mild stroke survivors, using the Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance (PEOP) model. A retrospective cohort analysis of 736 mild stroke survivors was conducted using electronic health records...

OBJECTIVES: Social workers are vital in delivering psychosocial services in palliative care, yet their specific roles in palliative oncology remain undefined. This study aimed to delineate the current practice role of oncology social workers involvement in palliative care in the United States. METHODS: This study utilized a cross-sectional design and involved secondary analysis of data from a nationwide survey focused on workforce conditions for oncology social workers...

In Vietnam and the Philippines, viral hepatitis is the leading cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer. This study aims to understand the barriers and enablers of people receiving care for hepatitis B and C to support both countries' efforts to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. Retrospective, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive, quota-based sample of 63 people living with hepatitis B or C in one province of Vietnam and one region of the Philippines. A rapid deductive approach to thematic analysis produced key findings among the three phases of care: (1) pre-awareness and testing, (2) linkage and treatment initiation and (3) ongoing treatment and recovery...

BACKGROUND: The occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic demanded fast changes in the delivery of health care. As a result, significant growth in the use of telemedicine services occurred. Research, especially from nationally representative German samples, is needed to better understand determinants of telemedicine use. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify determinants of telemedicine service use among middle-aged and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany...

BACKGROUND: Despite several interventions demonstrating benefit to people living with dementia and their caregivers, few have been translated and implemented in routine clinical practice. There is limited evidence of the barriers and facilitators for commissioning and implementing health and social care interventions for people living with dementia. The aim of the current study was to explore the barriers and facilitators to commissioning and implementing health and social care interventions for people with dementia, using a dementia friendly exercise and physical activity-based intervention (PrAISED [Promoting Activity, Stability and Independence in Early Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment]) as a case study...

INTRODUCTION: India has the largest cohort of community health workers with one million Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs). ASHAs play vital role in providing health education and promoting accessible health care services in the community. Despite their potential to improve the health status of people, they remain largely underutilized because of their limited knowledge and skills. Considering this gap, Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO)® India, in collaboration with the National Health System Resource Centre (NHSRC), implemented a 15-h (over 6 months) refresher training for ASHAs using a telementoring interface...

BACKGROUND: For people from asylum-seeking and refugee backgrounds, housing and the re-establishment of home are key social determinants of health. Research highlights the inequities faced by asylum seekers and refugees in the housing markets of high-income resettlement countries, resulting in their overrepresentation in precarious housing. There is also emerging evidence of the relationship between housing and health for this population relating to lack of affordability, insecurity of tenure, and poor suitability (physical and social)...

BACKGROUND: Facilities providing health- and social services for youth are commonly faced with the need for assessment and management of violent behavior. These providers often experience shortage of resources, compromising the feasibility of conducting comprehensive violence risk assessments. The Violence Risk Assessment Checklist for Youth aged 12-18 (V-RISK-Y) is a 12-item violence risk screening instrument developed to rapidly identify youth at high risk for violent behavior in situations requiring expedient evaluation of violence risk...

Service engagement is critical when working with children and families experiencing chronic adversities because of their socially marginalized status. Further, sociodemographic disparities exist in service engagement within service systems including Community-Based Behavioral Health; likely in part, a result of structural issues driving unresponsive service systems. Despite this knowledge, a large proportion of the family engagement literature continues to be approached through a deficit-based and family-centric lens leaving out important systemic considerations and furthering health inequities...

BACKGROUND: Health Care Professionals (HCPs) are the main end-users of digital clinical tools such as electronic prescription systems. For this reason, it is of high importance to include HCPs throughout the design, development and evaluation of a newly introduced system to ensure its usefulness, as well as confirm that it tends to their needs and can be integrated in their everyday clinical practice. METHODS: In the context of the PrescIT project, an electronic prescription platform with three services was developed (i...

PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine the interrupting effect of social distancing (SD) on emergency department (ED) patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD), stroke, asthma, and suicide attempts by PM2.5 exposure in eight Korean megacities from 2017 to 2020. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study used National Emergency Department Information System and AirKorea data. A total of 469014 patients visited EDs from 2017 to 2020. Interrupted time series analysis was employed to examine changes in the level and slope of the time series, relative risk, and confidence intervals (CIs) by PM2...

INTRODUCTION: Tobacco smoking is highly prevalent among alcohol and other drugs (AOD) service clients and, despite interest in quitting, abstinence is rarely sustained. Nicotine products may assist after discharge from residential treatment services, but little is known about client receptivity to them. This study examined AOD withdrawal service clients' experiences of two types of nicotine products for smoking cessation post-discharge, combination nicotine replacement therapy (cNRT) and nicotine vaping products (NVP)...