Archives: Patient Support

In honor of World Cancer Day 2018, NCD Synergies and the Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission are sharing video narratives of four people living with cancer in rural Ethiopia and Nepal. Their stories, part of the Voices of NCDI Poverty initiative, highlight the importance of addressing the equity gap in access to cancer services among the world's poorest populations.

Published by Jan Swasthya Sahygog (JSS), a health NGO in central India, the Atlas serves as a collection of narratives capturing the patient journey of specific ailments and the complexity in which they present themselves in rural Chhattisgarh, India. Supplemented with photo essays, commentaries and epidemiological figures, the Atlas explores the burden of disease in this setting and repositions prevailing understandings of illness and poverty. NCDs and injuries are featured throughout the work.

This report synthesizes the main themes covered during a World Bank hosted South-South Knowledge Exchange (SSKE) on Cancer Care and Control in Africa in 2015, that aimed to increase knowledge and uptake of effective strategies, and bolster regional collaboration through peer-to-peer learning.

This commentary, published in the American Journal of Public Health in 2016, discusses how primary care can be redesigned to tackle the global epidemic of NCDs in low and middle income countries, and highlights primary care as a primary platform for a comprehensive health system response to NCDs.

With leadership from clinicians in Haiti and Rwanda, PIH is working to change the unjust realities that our diabetes patients face. This work was highlighted at the 2015 World Diabetes Congress in Vancouver, with several Haitian diabetes experts in attendance to present and share their experiences.

This article presents results from a program in western Kenya to facilitate peer-led diabetes self-management support (DSMS) groups, in order to better address psychosocial and patient education needs among patients with diabetes in that region. Collaborators include Duke Global Health Institute, Purdue University, and AMPATH in Eldoret, Kenya.

In this article, the authors discuss psychosocial barriers to early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in low-income countries, including inadequate knowledge and understanding and social stigma. The article also presents evidence of effective advocacy and education programs facilitated at the community level, led by breast cancer survivors and patient families.

In this article, the authors investigate the experiences of stigma in families with a young child affected by sickle cell disorder (SCD) in Kenya and consider ways to counteract stigma in health, patient advocacy, community education, and research programs throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

Published in December 2013 by the Mental Health Working Group for the 2013 World Innovation Summit (WISH) in Qatar, this report outlines the current global burden of mental health, the need to elevate mental health as a global health priority, and a summary of six innovative priority actions for the scale-up of treatment and care for mental health in low and middle-income countries worldwide.

Using IIF's field experience and discussions resulting from International Diabetes Federation and WHO meetings in 2006, this report presents 11 key elements needed to implement a national diabetes program in sub-Saharan Africa, ranging from data collection, integrated health systems design, access to medicines and diagnostic tools, health care worker training, and community involvement and patient education.