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The purpose of this paper is to explore the socio-economic impacts of AIDS on families caring for AIDS-orphaned children in Mbeya rural district, Tanzania.

A qualitative inquiry employing one-on-one in-depth interviews was conducted in 2015. Purposive sampling technique was used to recruit participants (n=24) comprising 20 heads of families caring for AIDS-orphaned children, two local government staff and two staff from Isangati Agricultural Development Organisation – a non-government organisation. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic and framework approach.

Results demonstrated that families caring for AIDS-orphaned children experienced severe socio-economic impacts of the epidemic. Reduction in household savings, increase in living expenses on health care and increased education fees were the identified economic impacts on these families. Social impacts included labour shortage, withdrawal of children from school and increased demand for food.

There is a need for urgent responses and for scaling up programmes delivered by organisations, institutions and the government of Tanzania to help families cope with these impacts.

This study provides evidence on socio-economic impacts of AIDS on families caring for AIDS-orphaned children in Tanzania. An understanding of these impacts can help governmental and non-governmental institutions and programme planners to address the problem in their policies and develop evidence-based strategies and interventions in responding to the problem in Mbeya and Tanzania. Moreover, responses to reducing the impacts of AIDS on families require a holistic approach that encourages the involvement of all sectors and agents outside of the health sector.

This study seeks to explore health workers' perceptions and experiences on incentives for motivating and retaining them in primary health-care facilities in rural Ghana.

Phenomenological research design was used to explore health workers’ experiences and perceptions on their incentive packages. Sixty-eight in-depth interviews were conducted with health-care workers in primary health-care facilities and analyzed using thematic analysis approach.

The findings show health-care workers’ perceptions on their incentives, ranging from low awareness, unfair distribution, favoritism, means of punishment and incentives regarded unattractive. The preferred incentive packages identified were salary increase, housing availability, recognition, adequate supplies, and risk and responsibility allowances. Health-care workers suggested for the modification of incentives including vehicle importation waiver, reduction in study leave years and opportunity to pursue desired courses.

The findings suggest that incentives that align with health-care workers’ preferences can potentially improve their motivation and influence retention. Health-care workers’ concern on incentives having been used as favors and punishment as well as unfair distribution should be addressed by health managers and policymakers, to achieve the desired purpose of motivating and retaining them in rural areas. Appropriate internal monitoring mechanisms are needed for incentives regulation and to improve health workers’ retention in rural Ghana.

Describes the development of a management plan for prevention of falls and reduction of falls injuries for older and frail people in the community, nursing homes and acute care settings in Whyalla, South Australia. Falls among the elderly have been described as the most common causes of injury and hospital admissions for trauma in Australia. Prevention and control of injury is one of the five National Health Policy Priority Areas in Australia. As a response to the national initiative, and a felt need, the South Australian Centre for Rural and Remote Health was commissioned by the local health service to develop a plan that would address falls prevention in the older people in Whyalla. The plan was developed in consultation with the key stakeholders. An evidence‐based plan that uses messages from the scientific literature but modified to account for stakeholders’ feedback on what is feasible in practice, is considered a good example of best practice. Furthermore, the alignment of literature review alongside stakeholders’ consultation provides higher chances of the plan being adopted locally.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss innovative ways of addressing human resources for health (HRH) shortage in the Pacific, supported by a review of the literature and the Pacific Open Learning Health Network (POLHN), a programme created in response to the Pacific's HRH concern.

A systematic search was conducted of English literature between 1990 and 2012. A number of key words, singly and/or in combination, were used to search for articles on ProQuest and PubMed. Original articles were identified and reference lists scrutinised to obtain additional literature. Due to the paucity of information, only narrative review was conducted and themes emerging from the literature identified and critically reviewed.

There is a worldwide HRH shortage and a need to improve the skills of the health workforce to respond to changing population health needs. Continuing education (CE) through use of information technology (IT) is a means to strengthen HRH. POLHN is one example of an initiative to improve health worker skills and motivation. Technological change is increasingly common place in society. To make sense of these changes, practitioners can look for common themes in successful technological innovations of interactivity; information access, creation or sharing; communication; and simplicity. To ensure effective regulation of CE and IT there is a need to incorporate qualitative as well as quantitative measures, to prioritise the creation of quality, relevant, and appropriate resources and to facilitate access and active participation by health workers.

The paper highlights the complexity of HRH shortage as a global problem, which demands multiple initiatives to respond to the shortage in the pursuit of skilled, equitable and just delivery of health services and distribution of health service providers. One initiative that has worked elsewhere is professional development of health professionals through the provision of CE using IT. Online learning offers a pathway to address HRH shortage and overcomes challenges posed by distance, limited infrastructure and in small remote communities. POLHN contributes to improved skills and knowledge among health professionals who can, as a result, deliver better health services in a region as geographically dispersed and isolated as the Pacific.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the potential socio-cultural determinants contributing to inequalities and the susceptibility of the Ojek to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection.

In 2010 a qualitative enquiry was employed to collect data concerning the susceptibility of the Ojek to HIV infection. Both one-on-one open-ended in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were employed. Participants included Ojek (hired motorcycle drivers), religious and community leaders, staff from the HIV/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Commission of Belu and staff from two HIV/AIDS non-governmental organisations. A thematic analysis and a framework approach were used to analyse the data.

The findings showed four socio-cultural determinants of susceptibility to HIV infection within the Ojek community. These included: first, mobility and migration; second, patterns of sexual behaviours, sexual networks and sexual incentives; third, cultural norms and social interactions; and fourth, the lack of resources, knowledge and awareness of HIV/AIDS. Underpinned by these factors, the main determinant of HIV susceptibility for the Ojek is an individual’s engagement in sexual intercourse with multiple sex partners, including female commercial sex workers (FCSWs).

There is a need to disseminate HIV/AIDS information and education throughout the Ojek communities, and to engage the general population in the promotion of sexual behavioural change among the Ojek in Belu. Empowerment strategies should also be employed to empower the general community, the Ojek and FCSWs in order to address HIV/AIDS transmission.

This paper provides evidence of the socio-cultural determinants of HIV inequalities within the Ojek community in Indonesia. An understanding of these determinants would enable the planning, implementation and application of a holistic approach addressing the determinants of HIV in Belu and other similar settings. Additionally, knowledge of such determinants would provide an understanding of the role of inter-sectoral collaboration and community participation in tackling the susceptibility to HIV infection within the Ojek community.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of empowerment and the role that it plays in fostering community participation, community integration and in enabling a healthy re‐settlement of culturally and linguistically diverse migrants who have recently arrived in Australia from Sub Saharan Africa.

The paper's approach is a discussion expressing the views of authors supported by the relevant literature drawn from a wide range of sources on migration, settlement, health, social, environment, cultural and public health issues. The African community and its peak organisation, the African Communities Council of South Australia is presented and various empowerment strategies used by the council are discussed as a healthy model for empowering new settlers in the new environment.

The first part of the paper describes the migration of African migrants in South Australia and sets the scenario describing the current state of these migrants including opportunities and challenges they face in the new environment. The second part describes theories and contexts of community empowerment, relationship between community empowerment and a healthy settlement; and the relevance and implications of community empowerment. The third part draws the above context and the empowerment strategy is specifically related to the African Community in South Australia. The empowerment strategy in this case represents a wide range of interventions aimed to equip new African migrants to a successful and a healthy resettlement and integration in South Australia. By addressing a wide range of settlement challenges and issues, the strategy employs concepts of empowerment that have been used in public health in general, health promotion, health education, communications, community engagement and community development.

The paper highlights challenges and opportunities for new migrants in the new environment and argues that community empowerment is an important enabling tool for a healthy settlement, particularly for people with refugee backgrounds. The paper also acknowledges that the community development approach has assisted the target group and has improved their ability to overcome challenges associated with settlement through capacity building, social capital and community connectivity.

Since the development of the COVID-19 vaccinations, questions surrounding race have been prominent in the literature on vaccine uptake. Early in the vaccine rollout, public health officials were concerned with the relatively lower rates of uptake among certain racial/ethnic minority groups. We suggest that this may also be patterned by racial/ethnic residential segregation, which previous work has demonstrated to be an important factor for both health and access to health care.

In this study, we examine county-level vaccination rates, racial/ethnic composition, and residential segregation across the U.S. We compile data from several sources, including the American Community Survey (ACS) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) measured at the county level.

We find that just looking at the associations between racial/ethnic composition and vaccination rates, both percent Black and percent White are significant and negative, meaning that higher percentages of these groups in a county are associated with lower vaccination rates, whereas the opposite is the case for percent Latino. When we factor in segregation, as measured by the index of dissimilarity, the patterns change somewhat. Dissimilarity itself was not significant in the models across all groups, but when interacted with race/ethnic composition, it moderates the association. For both percent Black and percent White, the interaction with the Black-White dissimilarity index is significant and negative, meaning that it deepens the negative association between composition and the vaccination rate.

The analysis is only limited to county-level measures of racial/ethnic composition and vaccination rates, so we are unable to see at the individual-level who is getting vaccinated.

We find that segregation moderates the association between racial/ethnic composition and vaccination rates, suggesting that local race relations in a county helps contextualize the compositional effects of race/ethnicity.