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This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.

This paper aims to: analyze the challenge of health services fragmentation; present the attributes of integrated health service delivery networks (IHSDNs); review lessons learned on integration; examine recent developments in selected countries; and discuss policy implications of implementing IHSDNs.

A literature review, expert meetings, and country consultations (national, subregional, and regional) in the Americas resulted in a set of consensus‐based essential attributes for implementing IHSDNs. The analysis of 11 country case studies on integration allowed for the identification of lessons learned.

Studies suggest that IHSDNs could improve health systems performance. Principal findings include: integration processes are difficult, complex, and long term; integration requires extensive systemic changes and a commitment by health workers, health service managers and policymakers; and, multiple modalities and degrees of integration can coexist within a system. The public policy objective is to propose a design that meets each system's specific organizational needs.

The analysis presented in this paper is qualitative.

Some policy implications for implementing IHSDNs are presented in the paper.

The research and evidence on integration remains limited. The paper expands the knowledge‐base on the topic, presenting lessons learned on integration and recent developments in selected countries, which can support integration efforts in the region.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize activities being undertaken by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe to prevent and control COVID-19 in and beyond prisons, activities specifically designed to increase information sharing and to support Member States, to comment on potential impacts of these initiatives at country-level responses and to underline the need for a rights-based approach to managing the pandemic, including the right to vaccination.

The Health in Prisons Programme (HIPP) of the WHO Regional Office for Europe worked with partner organizations to review regularly the evidence on best practices in prison health and use it to inform policy recommendations at the global level. HIPP issued overarching guidance and specific tools to support implementation of measures to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19 in prisons and other custodial settings. Moreover, to monitor the emergence of outbreaks, the HIPP developed a minimum data set for countries voluntarily to report COVID-19 cases and identify situations in need of direct support.

Since May 2020, the WHO has periodically received data from Member States, leading to the development of country-specific bulletins to support countries and, whenever appropriate, to organize virtual missions to further support ministries and public health bodies responsible for managing COVID-19 in prisons.

The development of a specific set of indicators for prisons enables exploring data in a disaggregated manner. Monitoring response measures developed in prison enables judging their appropriateness to minimize the spread of SARS-CoV2 in prisons and alignment with guidance issued by the WHO.

Drawing on world society and policy analysis literatures, the purpose of this paper is to examine the uneven diffusion of family planning programs in the developing world and the subsequent consequences for child health. The study begins by assessing the effect of world society ties on countries' commitment to and capacity for family planning programs. It then examines the impact such programs have on child health inputs and survival.

This paper uses a cross‐national, quantitative study design on a sample of less developed countries.

Countries' world society embeddedness is a robust predictor of their institutional commitment to and capacity for family planning programs. Such program efforts are also shown to have a significant impact on child survival rates, mediated by reduced fertility and higher rates of childhood immunization.

Future research should further explore the way in which such programs contribute to and/or serve as a foundation for health infrastructure in developing countries.

This study points to the child health benefits associated with building capacity in family planning programs. Practitioners should take care to appropriately adapt global policy models to local needs and circumstances while allowing local control.

This paper contributes to a growing body of literature on the role of world society (international nongovernmental organization) networks in spreading development policies and programs in the developing world. Going one step further, it assesses the actual impact of one such policy program on children's health.

Observes that the World Health Organization (WHO) has promoted the goal of “Health for All” since 1977. The Workers’ Health Programme of WHO aims to: strengthen international and national policies for health at work; develop a healthy work environment; develop healthy work practices and health promotion; strengthen occupational health care and services; establish appropriate support for occupational health; develop occupational health standards which are science‐based; develop human resources for occupational health; establish appropriate information systems and raise public awareness; strengthen research; foster collaborative efforts.

The aim of the paper is to connect the field of health management to other related academic discourses (critical management studies and critical development studies) that can contribute to a more interdisciplinary approach to understanding health organizations and management.

The paper's design is theoretical critique that blends post‐structural, critical management and critical development approaches into a focused discussion of modernity and its relevance to contemporary health management issues.

Modernity proliferates through a variety of rhetorical tropes that go unnoticed or remain invisible. Through a brief analysis of historical definitions of management and development, the findings suggest that health management could also be critiqued as a cultural and social construction, enriching anthropological studies as well as informing practical critiques of health projects in the development sector.

The conceptualisation of health‐management as a cultural construct of modernity opens up the prospect for some rich empirical studies into what management practices support the scientific‐rational claims on which it rests.

The critique informs a re‐appraisal of health management practices that are often taken for granted and ritualistic parts of organizational life. Such a re‐evaluation could lead to the implementation of more nuanced and appropriate health practices.

Connecting management and development discourses in this way has not been done before and its relevance to health management remains under‐researched. This paper highlights the way these discourses can enrich the study of health organizations and create a truly interdisciplinary understanding of health.

The purpose of this paper is to examine sex differences in mental health service usage among upper-middle, lower-middle, and low-income countries (LICs).

Data from 62 low- and middle-income countries (LAMICs) were collected with the World Health Organization – Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS). Sex differences in mental health service utilization were assessed by comparing the proportion female in the general population with the proportion female treated for mental illness in five different types of mental health facility.

Two-sided t-tests for significance (a=0.05) revealed a significant difference between the proportion female in the population and the proportion treated in inpatient facilities (community-based and mental hospitals) in LICs. There was also a trend toward decreased use of outpatient facilities by women in LICs (p=0.08). Lower-middle and upper-middle income countries showed no differences. In day treatment facilities for the entire sample, there was a significant difference between the proportion female in the population and the proportion treated female (weighted mean difference overall=0.10, p=0.035).

The authors found significantly reduced utilization of mental health services by women in LICs in community-based inpatient facilities and mental hospitals and a trend toward decreased use in outpatient facilities. Future studies investigating the factors contributing to the lower utilization of services by women in LICs are essential.

This study presents the first comprehensive study of mental health service usage by sex in 62 LAMICs.

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) constitute a major threat to patient safety and affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The World Health Organization in 2016 published guidelines on the core components for infection prevention and control (IPC) programme. This was in response to a global call for focused action. The purpose of this paper is to examine and promote understanding of the tenets of the IPC guidelines and highlight their implications for implementation in low-income countries.

Drawing from personal experiences in leading the implementation of health programmes as well as a review of published and grey literature on IPC, authors discussed and proposed practical approaches to implement IPC priorities in low-income setting.

Availability of locally generated evidence is paramount to guide strengthening leadership and institutionalisation of IPC programmes. Preventing infections is everybody’s responsibility and should be viewed as such and accorded the required attention.

Drawing from recent experiences from disease outbreaks and given the heavy burden of HAIs especially in low-income settings, this paper highlights practical approaches to guide implementation of the major components of IPC.

For over 100 years biomedical psychiatry has dominated the way people throughout the western world understand their sadness and distress, despite the lack of empirical evidence that distress has a biological basis. Now, the interests of the global pharmaceutical industry and trans‐national professional elites such as the World Health Organisation and the World Psychiatric Association are extending these biomedical accounts across the globe. This paper briefly describes biomedical psychiatry and its origins before considering how this project is closely aligned to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. It ends with a call for a new agenda in mental health, driven by the concerns and interests of ordinary people in local communities, and an outline of recent developments in Britain and elsewhere that illustrate this challenge to the biomedical hegemony.

Mental health service provision varies enormously across the world and faces major challenges, largely determined by the contexts in which it functions. A variety of services exist side by side in low‐income countries. They include services provided in the statutory and private (fee‐paying) sectors, therapies provided by physicians working within indigenous systems of medicine, healing provided at religious locations and services provided by non‐governmental organisations. This paper provides a brief survey of some recent literature on mental health in low‐income countries and goes on to describe a few examples of innovative projects in these countries. The paper concludes by outlining some of the challenges faced by these countries in providing services in the modern world.