Health Care in a Changing Climate: A Review of Climate Change Laws and National Adaptation Plans in Latin America

Given that the health-related impacts of climate change in Latin America disproportionately affect the most marginalized sections of the population, there is a need to enhance countries’ adaptive capacity through improved health systems. Though public health institutions have delineated guidelines to enhance health care systems’ preparedness for climate change, embedding a human rights perspective in their translation into laws and policies further adds important value. Crucially, a rights-based approach strengthens health responses to climate change by calling attention to how climate law and policy fail to account for persistent and interlocking socioeconomic inequalities. This is an area that has not been fully present in the provision of health services in Latin America, which rely almost exclusively on a conventional epidemiological perspective and do not consider the historical and sociocultural nature of health challenges. Hence, this paper draws on two case studies—Brazil and Colombia—to identify the extent to which their national climate change laws and adaptation plans incorporate a human rights-based approach in their tasks to enhance their adaptive capacity through the expansion of affordable and quality health care. With respect to the countries’ laws, the absence of explicit references to the right to health exemplifies the fragmentation between the international human rights framework and international climate change law. Further, both countries’ adaptation plans hold considerable room for improving their engagement with the human rights framework, particularly by establishing mechanisms to promote transparency, monitoring, and the participation of marginalized groups.     

Health of the Homeless and Climate Change

The homeless are amongst the most vulnerable groups in developed regions, suffering from high rates of poorly controlled chronic disease, smoking, respiratory conditions, and mental illness, all of which render them vulnerable to new and resurgent disease processes associated with climate change. To date, there have been no papers reviewing the impacts of climate change on the homeless population. This paper provides a framework for understanding the nature of such an impact. We review four pathways: increased heat waves, increased air pollution, increased severity of floods and storms, and the changing distribution of West Nile Virus. We emphasize the need for further debate and research in this field.     

Creating a Practice-Based Implementation Network: Facilitating Practice Change Across Health Care Systems

The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research - A proof-of-concept practice-based implementation network was developed in the US Departments of Veteran Affairs (VA) and Defense to...     

Estimating Real Change in Health Care

The technology revolution has accelerated the pace of change and increased our tolerance for experimentation. The National Council for Behavioral Health owes it to those served by our member organizations to keep our eye on the future. To quote leadership guru Peter Drucker, “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence. It is to act with yesterday's logic.” Studies in this edition of JBHS&R address the capacity of different components of the current behavioral health workforce and examine training methods successful in preparing the workforce with the new skills and abilities which will be crucial in 2014 and beyond.     

Climate Change,Health, and Communication: A Primer

Climate change is one of the most serious and pervasive challenges facing us today. Our changing climate has implications not only for the ecosystems upon which we depend, but also for human health. Health communication scholars are well-positioned to aid in the mitigation of and response to climate change and its health effects. To help theorists, researchers, and practitioners engage in these efforts, this primer explains relevant issues and vocabulary associated with climate change and its impacts on health. First, this primer provides an overview of climate change, its causes and consequences, and its impacts on health. Then, the primer describes ways to decrease impacts and identifies roles for health communication scholars in efforts to address climate change and its health effects.     

Creating the Climate for Diversity and Race Equality in Health Care

In 1997 the Department of Health funded eight projects to demonstrate 'mainstreaming' responses to minority ethnic health in the NHS. 'Mainstreaming' is understood to require cultural, organisation and practice change; sustaining such change is a major challenge. Evaluation of the projects identified that leadership was a critical factor in encouraging change that was lasting. Other important issues were maintaining the desire changes in a turbulent organisational context and linking changes in practice with other priorities and initiatives. The agenda for the New NHS presents an opportunity for learning from this programme to be put into practice across the Department of Health and the NHS.     

从健康观转变看自我保健

世界卫生组织提出,健康是人的基本权利,使所有的人尽可能地达到最高的健康水平,是世界范围内一项最主要的目标.1998年6月,在波多黎各首府圣胡安市召开的第十六届世界健康促进和健康教育大会,把平等、权利、环境和经济列为21世纪四大发展主题,笔者认为,在 到来的新世纪,健康将面临种种挑战:一是健康观念的变革,二是打破健康权的不平等,三是健康促进手段迎来新的革命,健康教育和自我保健成为必然.