HEART Talks
HEART Talks is a series of web-based resources based around short video recordings focusing on the fields of health, education nutrition, social protection and WASH. Experts in these fields volunteer their time and expertise in exchange for the opportunity to present their ideas and share information on their subject of interest. The videos are accompanied by key papers, links to relevant documents and other resources.
The global pandemic Covid-19 is impacting people in many and varied ways. The effects on all our lives are immense and diverse, from rural and urban communities, young and old, from different geographic and economic groups, we are each living with different realities of a global crisis. In this month’s episode of the Institute of… Read more
The mental health consequences of rapid onset emergencies, fragility, conflict and violence— compounded by the cyclical relationship between poverty and mental illness—are pressing challenges, especially in humanitarian settings. People with pre-existing psychosocial disabilities are also among the most vulnerable in these contexts. In this video, Alison Schafer and Mark van Ommeren from the World Health Organization discuss… Read more
Roughly half of all mental health conditions start by the mid-teens, and three-quarters by the mid-twenties. Childhood and adolescence are key developmental stages when factors such as family, peers and school, as well as poverty, violence and other forms of adversity, can have lifelong consequences for mental health. At the same time, development interventions targeted… Read more
In this video, Julian Eaton from CBM and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine discusses the ‘disease-model’ approach to mental health, the social risk factors that can contribute to mental health conditions, and explores how social development programmes can improve mental health and psychosocial support outcomes. This video was produced from a training… Read more
The 2018 Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development makes the case for mental health to be integrated into all aspects of development as part of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. This means including people with psychosocial disabilities in the work that development organisations are already doing, incorporating more targeted approaches to mental… Read more
In this video, Jasmine Kalha, QualityRights Gujarat, discusses the benefits of a rights-based approach to mental health, the QualityRights framework in the context of health systems, the role that peer support should play in QualityRights, and her favourite Article of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). In this video, Soumitra Pathare,… Read more
Interview: Evidence review on health systems strengthening Due to the lack of clear definitions and the potentially huge volume of evidence, comprehensive reviews of health systems strengthening (HSS) interventions are relatively uncommon. In this interview lead author Sophie Witter (Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh) discusses one such rapid evidence review, recently commissioned by the UK Department for… Read more
Monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) is used to guide the implementation of a programme, understand the performance of the programme, and assess the best approach to future developments. To ensure the success of healthcare system reforms, and projects being implemented around them, an innovative MEL design is needed. Often, traditional models measuring the outputs of… Read more
In recent years, the global health security agenda has gained prominence, as it pursues a multilateral and multi-sectoral approach to respond to health emergencies. It aims to strengthen capacity at a global and national level to prevent, detect, and respond to the spread of infectious diseases. Despite great progress in improving access to healthcare for all,… Read more
Effective health planning is critical in ensuring affordable, accessible, and high quality health services for all. Many low- and middle-income countries rely on donor funding to establish or maintain the basic healthcare services, and often struggle to ensure sustainability of these when sources of funding in the sector change. Multilateral organisations and government partners have… Read more
According to the World Bank, fragility, conflict, and violence is a critical development challenge that threatens efforts to end extreme poverty, affecting both low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Many of the world’s crises are caused by or exacerbated by fragility, from violent conflict to internal and external displacements and climate shocks. Compared to other LMICs, fragile… Read more