Global Community Health Annual Workshop – Third edition

From 13 till 15 June 2023, the third online edition of the Global Community Health Annual Workshop will take place. The overall workshop theme is “Sustainable community health: practice-based solutions for today’s challenges”. The theme will be explored via three sub-themes, one for each workshop day: Food security, Mental health and Environmental health. Each year the Community Health workshop focuses on practice-based solutions. This year it will be on stakeholder engagement and mobilisation of the community. Examples of these will relate to the sub-theme each day. Stakeholders include families, professionals, commercial interests and policymakers as relevant to each health topic.

To accommodate participants from all different time zones around the world, the workshop will be offered twice a day.

  • Block 1 will run from 10.00 – 13.30 Paris; 16.00 – 19.30 Beijing; 18.00 – 21.30 Melbourne.
  • Block 2 will run from 16.00 – 19.30 Paris; 7.00 – 10.30 Los Angeles; 11.00 – 14.30 Buenos Aires

Please note that the times in the programme below are in central European summer time (CEST).

Tuesday 13 June 2023 – Food security

9.45 – 10.00 & 15.45 – 16.00 CEST : Welcome

MODERATOR

Goof Buijs is the manager of UNESCO Chair / WHO Collaborating Centre Global Health & Education. From 2019 he is director of Global Health & Education Consultancy. His field of expertise is bringing health and education together. He is an experienced networker, expert in creating and leading international projects focused on prevention and youth, innovator, trainer and facilitator of events and conferences. He supports cooperation among people, focusing on everyone’s talents and uniqueness.

Pr. Isabelle Richard – Since 2022, Pr Richard is the dean of the French School of Public Health. This appointment comes after a long academic career as a university professor and hospital physician (PU-PH), working in physical medicine and rehabilitation. As an expert, she has also contributed to several national councils and committees and held the prestigious position of Chief advisor on health and training issues to the French Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, between 2017 and 2019. Before moving to Rennes for the EHESP, she was First Vice-Chair of the University of Angers in charge of equality

Sarah Chaput – As director of the Americas section of the « Réseau francophone international pour la promotion de la santé » (International Francophone Network for Health Promotion), Sarah Chaput works with many stakeholders on capacity building health promotion projects. Sarah has completed a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and a master’s degree in Public Health from the “Université de Montréal”, and has worked as a scientific advisor for the “Institut national de santé publique du Québec”. While she initially worked on food access issues, her scope of practice has broadened in the last years to include more comprehensive approaches to health promotion. Sarah values the sharing of knowledge and expertise in health promotion in a perspective of sustainable health and win-win relationships between stakeholders.

Nicola Gray is the Co-Chair holder of the UNESCO Chair on Global Health & Education. She is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Registered as a pharmacist in 1991, she has worked in hospital, community and academic pharmacy. She is a Trustee of the UK Association for Young People’s Health and Vice-President for Europe of the International Association for Adolescent Health. Nicola is also a Governing Council Member of the global coalition NCD Child, and chairs their Task Force on Essential Medicines and Equipment. She has published a number of papers and opinion pieces regarding the safe reopening of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the challenges for children and young people living with a long-term condition.

Didier Jourdan is full Professor and the Chair Holder of the UNESCO Chair “Global Health and Education” and Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for “Research in Education and Health” which are focused on knowledge production and sharing from an intersectoral perspective. He is the former Director of the Prevention and Health Promotion Division of the French National Public Health Agency. He has formally held positions as Director of the Graduate School of Teaching and Education (ESPE), Head of the Centre for lifelong learning and Vice-President of Blaise Pascal University. In addition, he held the position as President of the “Prevention, Education and Health Promotion” Commission of the French High Council for Public Health and President of the Network “Universities for training in health education”.

10.00 – 10.40 & 16.00 – 16.40 CEST Keynote : Energizing communities for healthier lives

Glenn Laverack is a social scientist and a leader in health promotion and community empowerment with a distinguished career for 40 years as a practitioner, an academic, researcher and consultant in more than 50 countries. He has been an advocate for the value of ordinary people in the development of innovative solutions to co-create successful programs in different cultural contexts. He has managed several large-scale health programs including in Ghana and India and has a wide range of publications including 26 books in 13 different languages. He has held an academic position at 8 universities and his PhD investigated the collaborative role of communities in health programs in Fiji. He is presently an independent adviser with governmental and international development agencies.

Summary : Practice-based solutions for today’s health and well-being challenges must have a focus on the engagement and mobilization of communities as an essential step towards co-production and sustainability. Why does community engagement play such an important role and what can we learn from other experiences in the world? A reflection of international case studies will provide a broader understanding of how to energize communities through empowerment for healthier lives.

DISCUSSANT

Eric Breton, a Canadian, is professor of health promotion at the EHESP School of public health. Before settling in France, he acquired a broad international experience in research in Canada, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. His main research interests focus on policy advocacy strategies in the prevention of NCDs, evaluation of complex community-based interventions, and on local capacity building strategies for health and equity. He is an affiliated researcher of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education, and sits on different national and regional expert groups such as the High Council for Public Health (HCSP). In 2020, he published with three other editors the second edition of the first health promotion handbook in French, a publication that has mobilized contributions from 40 authors from 6 countries.

10.40 – 11.10 & 16.40 – 17.10 CEST : Food security, food systems, and community-based actions

Nastaran Keshavarz Mohammadi is a Professor in Health Promotion at the School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran. She is also a core group member of the Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education.

11.15 – 12.00 & 17.15 – 18.00 CEST : Implications of a life course approach to commercial determinants of health (CDOH). A Latin American perspective

Raul Mercer is a pediatrician with a master’s degree in epidemiology from the University of Madison, WI, US. He was coordinator of the Maternal and Child Program of the Ministry of Health of the Province of Buenos Aires and at the national level. He currently coordinates the Program of Social Sciences and Health at FLACSO (Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences). He was a member of the Lancet-WHO-UNICEF Commission for the report ‘A future for the world’s children?’. Member of the CAP-2030 (Children in All Policies) initiative (www.cap-2030.org). He participates in the ALAPE Social Pediatrics Committee and the International Society of Social Pediatrics (ISSOP) (www.issop.org). At FLACSO he develops activities related to health promotion, child rights and health, gender and childhood, life course approach, early childhood development, and comprehensive sexual education. Recently, we addressed the commercial determinants of health and the consequences of harmful marketing products for the health of children and adolescents.

Mariela Alderete is a physician, graduated from the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. She completed her training as a Family Physician at the Italian Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She did a Master’s Program in Health and Social Security Systems at Universidad Isalud, Buenos Aires (thesis pending). She is a member of the Social Sciences and Health Program at FLACSO, Argentina. Leader in the development of research and education projects for the promotion of public health policies at the National and Regional levels. Relevant background: Regional Project for the promotion of public policies for tobacco control in Latin America. M. Bloomberg Foundation, NY USA and CTFK (Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids) Washington DC USA; Coordinator of the pilot study for the monitoring of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes with the support of PAHO, UNICEF and SAP. Member of the network for the formulation of a law that regulates the marketing of BMS in Argentina.

Summary: According the recently published Lancet Series, commercial determinants of health (CDOH) are defined as the systems, practices, and pathways through which commercial actors drive health and equity. Within the present context, the available literature considers the effects of CDOH on the adult population without mentioning their importance during the early stages of life. The purpose of this activity is to analyze the conceptual bases of the CDOH and recognize how harmful marketing potentially affects children’s health. We consider that it is crucial to identify the first stages of life as a relevant period on which the modalities of induced food insecurity are generated.

12.00 – 12.15 & 18.00 – 18.15 CEST : Voices from the field

Get to know different community health practices from around the world

12.15 – 13.30 & 18.15 – 19.30 CEST : Community Health Hubs

You can reflect and discuss in your breakout group on the lessons learnt and how these can be applied to different national and/or regional contexts. This is your opportunity to get to know other participants, share information, experiences and concerns.

Wednesday 14 June 2023 – Mental health

10.00 – 10.30 & 17.30 – 18.00 CEST : The role of youth and lived experience advocates in the future of community based health

Grace Gatera is a lived experience mental health advocate, living in Kigali, Rwanda. She is a Wellcome Lived Experience Advisor, a young leader with UNICEF Leading Minds, and is also a young leader with My Mind Our Humanity, a youth campaign for the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development. Grace is passionate about young people especially those in vulnerable and marginalized communities across the world’s access to specialized and quality mental health care and medication, as well as their involvement in high level policy and decision making involving mental health.

Summary: This presentation is based on my story, and will serve as an opportunity to share insights about working in the field of youth and lived experience advocacy in Rwanda and on a global level. I will also look at best practices in  integrating youth and lived experience perspectives within mental health science and wider, in community based care.

10.30 – 11.00 & 16.30 – 17.00 CEST : Innovate or Stagnate!

Dr. Abhijit Nadkarni, MBBS, DPM, MRCPsych, MSc (Mental Health Services Research), PhD (Epidemiology). Abhijit is a tenure-track Associate Professor of Global Mental Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK. He is an addiction psychiatrist and global mental health researcher conducting research aimed at developing and evaluating interventions for increasing access to mental healthcare in low resource settings. His host institution in India is Sangath, a mental health research NGO, where he is the Director of the Addictions Research Group. He has trained at the Goa Medical College, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, UK, King’s College London and LSHTM. He is actively involved in the capacity building of mental health researchers and lay health workers in India and overseas (e.g. Nepal, Kenya, Uganda). He teaches on various MSc courses (Global Mental Health, Public Health Policy)  at the LSHTM, and is the Course Director for the annual short course on Leadership in Mental Health. He is on the State Mental Health Authority for Goa, and was on the task force of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that developed the mental health operational guidelines for the Ayushman Bharat Program.

Summary: My presentation aims to provide alternative and innovative evidence-based solutions to the supply-side barriers that lead to limited and inequitable access to mental health care across the globe. I will first outline the size of the burden related to mental health problems. Subsequently I will reflect on why existing models of care have not been successful in responding to the problem. Finally, I will provide evidence of innovative and low cost community based task sharing models of care that are designed to reduce the treatment gap for mental health problems globally.

11.00 – 11.30 & 17.00 – 17.30 CEST : ‘Presentation on mental health’

Diana Medina – Clinical Psychologist, Master in Public Health Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), Ecuador

11.30 – 12.00 & 16.00 – 16.30 CEST : World Mental Health: community engagement and mobilisation

Professor Chee Ng is the Healthscope Chair of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, the University of Melbourne. He is the Director of the Professorial Unit at The Melbourne Clinic, and Director of International Unit and WHO Collaborating Centre in Mental Health at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. He completed his medical degree (MBBS), Master of Medicine in Psychiatry and Doctor of Medicine in cross-cultural psychopharmacology at The University of Melbourne. He was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1998. He has considerable research experience in psychopharmacology, mood and anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, old age, and cross-cultural psychiatry. He is the Co-Editor of Asia Pacific Psychiatry and an author of over 350 peer-reviewed journal articles. He previously led the Asia-Pacific Community Mental Health Development Project involving 18 Asia-Pacific countries. He also served as international mental health consultant for WHO, the Commonwealth of Nations and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and worked on national projects in Asia Pacific countries. He is currently a steering committee member of the APEC Mental Health Digital Hub and President of the Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists.

Summary: Globally, mental health conditions presently remain widespread and undertreated, and services to address them are insufficiently resourced. The World Mental Health Report 2022 calls on all stakeholders to work together to increase commitment for mental health, improve the environments that impact on mental health, and strengthen mental health systems. Community engagement and mobilisation are crucial to undertake urgent mental health reform to improve community mental health for all. All health and mental health stakeholders can participate and contribute to developing accessible and sustainable mental health services for those in need who are among the most vulnerable.

12.00 – 12.15 & 18.00 – 18.15 CEST : Voices from the field

Get to know different community health practices from around the world

12.15 – 13.30 & 18.15 – 19.30 CEST : Community Health Hubs

You can reflect and discuss in your breakout group on the lessons learnt and how these can be applied to different national and/or regional contexts. This is your opportunity to get to know other participants, share information, experiences and concerns.

Thursday 15 June 2023 – Environmental heallth

10.00 – 10.30 & 16.00 – 16.30 CEST : Youth and Environmental Health

Ashley Lashley – Executive Director of the Ashley Lashley Foundation and Founder of the HEY Campaign, Barbados.

Summary: The Ashley Lashley Foundation presentation will highlight the effects of environmental health, youth engagement in achieving environmental health justice, and the work that is being facilitated through the Healthy and Environmentally- Friendly Youth (HEY) Campaign. 

10.30 – 11.00 & 16.30 – 17.00 CEST : ‘Presentation on environmental health’

Ojistoh Kahnawahere Horn is a Mohawk / Haudenosaunee woman whose mother is from Kahnawake, and father is from Akwesasne. She works as a family physician taking care of her people through all stages of the lifecycle. She teaches medical students and family medicine residents the complexities of providing primary care to Indigenous peoples and their communities. Drawing on both Western and Traditional paradigms, working with likeminded physicians across the country, with a focus on the effects of the environment and pollution on health, she promotes the inclusion and support of traditional knowledge and ‘ways of being’ into a framework for providing wholistic and primary care to her people.

11.00 – 11.30 & 17.00 – 17.30 CEST : ‘Presentation on environmental health’

Heleen Roos – PhD candidate, COPC Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa

11.30 – 12.00 & 17.30 – 18.00 CEST : From good intentions to political change in community interventions: lessons from the field in Argentine Patagonia

Sergio Fernando Jaime is a family doctor with a Master in Public Health and Primary Care from Trelew (Patagonia Argentina) with an extensive experience in the academic field and in the development of projects in the field of public health and health promotion. He was an official of the Ministry of Health of Chubut for nine years (2006-2015). He has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in public health and health promotion in various institutions and was the founding professor of Health Promotion, Public Health I and Public Health II at the Medical School of the National University of Patagonia. In recent years, his work has focused on developing effective strategies for the implementation of public health policies in community contexts. As a member of the Civil Association Horizonte Sur, he carries out different projects for organisations in his country and for various international organisations. He has published more than a dozen scientific articles in Spanish in peer-reviewed journals in the field of public health and community health. His recent book “Claves para la Promoción de la salud en Latinoamérica” (co-authored with Dr. Laverack) has been read and reviewed in most Latin American countries.

Summary: Latin America suffers from a lack of information on community environmental health interventions and Patagonia Argentina does not escape this characterization. Three trends in community health explain this situation in Patagonia and perhaps throughout Latin America: a) policies that limit or hinder the development of comprehensive interventions; b) promising actions, but with limitations in their impact and possibilities of replication and c) actions that achieved a demonstrable impact but could not extend their benefits. In this presentation we will provide examples to characterize each of these trends and reflections aimed at improving the performance of community environmental health actions.

12.00 – 12.15 & 18.00 – 18.15 CEST : Voices from the field

Get to know different community health practices from around the world

12.15 – 13.30 & 18.15 – 19.30 CEST : Community Health Hubs

You can reflect and discuss in your breakout group on the lessons learnt and how these can be applied to different national and/or regional contexts. This is your opportunity to get to know other participants, share information, experiences and concerns.

Voices from the field

Dr Robert Akparibo is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) of Global Health and Nutrition based at the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), the University of Sheffield. He has more than 20 years ‘combined’ experience in public health interventions development and implementation, research, and capacity building of healthcare professionals. Dr Akparibo received training in Public Health, Nutrition, Epidemiology and Programmes Management and Leadership from the University of Sheffield (UK), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), University of Rennes (France), Jagiellonian University (Poland), Imperial College (London) and the University for Development Studies (Ghana). Prior to joining the University of Sheffield, Dr Akparibo worked with several development organisations in 2 different continents (sub-Saharan Africa and Europe), including with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in European regional office (Denmark), UNICEF in Ghana, Family Health International in Senegal, Helen Keller International in Burkina Faso, the Association of Faith-Based Development Programme (ACDEP) in Ghana, and the Ghana Health Services. He is a visiting Professor at the University of Allied Health Sciences, Ghana, and the Co-chair of the Global School Health and Nutrition Special Interest group, as well as the Nutrition Measurement Community of Practice group of the Global Research Consortium on School Health and Nutrition.

Nabil Sayed Ahmad Beiruti. Nacido en Damasco (Siria) el 23-10-1950. En España desde enero de 1970. Médico Especialista en Psiquiatría. Actualmente jubilado. Socio de Médicos del Mundo, Amnistía Internacional, ACNUR y Asociación Española de Neuropsiquiatría. Voluntario de Cruz Roja.
Competencia en salud mental comunitaria. Experiencia en atención sociosanitaria a población migrante en colaboración con ONG y asociaciones, con perspectiva comunitaria e intercultural.
Experiencia docente en varios masters sobre salud mental y migración, con aportaciones sobre el mismo tema en artículos, capítulos de libros y conferencias. Tutor de Médicos Internos Residentes en Psiquiatría y en Medicina Familiar y Comunitaria.

Facilitators

Jean-Christophe Azorin currently teaches at the Montpellier Faculty of Education in a master’s programme dedicated to health promotion and sustainable development. He also teaches at the University of Paris Saclay as part of a DU in Cancer Prevention Education.
He works with various organisations involved in community health, notably in sub-Saharan Africa and Vietnam.
He advises local authorities on setting up health action programmes aimed at local populations.
Jean-Christophe Azorin is editor-in-chief of the journal Santé Scolaire et Universitaire, published by Elsevier.

Somto Chike-Obuekwe is a licensed pharmacist from Nigeria, where she has practiced for over 5 years. She got her MSc degree in Advanced Pharmacy practice with Hospital Placement at University of Huddersfield, where she continued with her PhD on suicide prevention. Her research focuses on the Contribution of Community Pharmacy in Suicide Prevention in Nigeria.

Oumar Bella Diallo, Senegalese, holds a Master’s 2 in Teaching Life and Earth Sciences, a professional degree in Education and Health Promotion and a Bachelor’s 3 in Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences. I studied Science and Technology, majoring in Life and Earth Sciences at the Faculty of Science and Technology at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. I teach life and earth sciences and promote health. I am currently a junior researcher and a member of the advisory committee of the HIRA (Héberger, Informer, Re-socialiser et Accueillir) action research project, run by the LASPAD (Laboratoire d’Analyses des Sociétés et des Pouvoirs /Afrique Diaspora) at the UGB _Saint Louis. The project examines the political and social challenges of caring for adolescent victims of sexual and gender-based violence in Senegal.

Ange-Marie Nicodème Esse, Beninese, he is Community Health Advocate, founder of the National Network of Community Health Activists in Benin and Co-founder of Non-Governmental Organization “HEALTH ACCESS INITIATIVE (HAI)”. He has completed a Master’s degree in Health Promotion and a Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Agro-Food Sciences, he is also involved as a member of the “International Francophone Network for Health Promotion”. He is a public health project manager and research assistant at the American organization Justice & Empowerment Initiatives (JEI) in Benin. He is the author of the podcast “LES ÉCHOS DE SANTÉ COMMUNAUTAIRE”.

Abdou Khaly MBODJ holds a master’s degree in community health from the Université Alioune Diop in Bambey, Senegal. He is the General Manager of the Rao Bussiness Kheweul company and the Saint Louis global coordinator of the Rawal Ak Diam platform, a project to improve maternal and child health. He is also a lecturer on the professional degree course in Education and Health Promotion at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, with the UNESCO Chair Global Helath & Education and Health.

Tenia Prokalamou has been working as a Biomedical Scientist for the Greek NHS in both Primary and Secondary Health Care. She has a Msc degree in Applied Dietetics and Nutrition spec in Sports and Nutrition. She is a PhD Candidate at Harokopio University in healthy ageing and a Research Associate at the same University working in DigiCare4You project. Her research interests are in the areas of Health Promotion & Public Health and NCD, Diabetes & Obesity  Prevention in young children and their families.  

Amets Suess Schwend, PhD in Social Anthropology, MA Arts Therapies and BA/MA Sociology. They work in research, teaching and consultancy at the Andalusian School of Public Health, Area of International Health, Granada, Spain, and collaborate as PhD supervisor at the University of Granada. Their recent publications focus on trans and intersex studies, human rights, depathologization and research epistemologies, methodologies and ethics. 

MinChien Tsai PhD in Psychology. She is an affiliated researcher of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education. Her research interests are in the areas of health promotion, occupational health and safety, and career development. She is also a career development advisor, particularly on the topic of healthy ageing at work. Previously, she worked as a project coordinator at the Health Promoting School International Network Center for the past 10 years.

Host

Silvia de Ruiter, project officer at the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education. She has a Master’s degree in Communication Sciences from the University of Twente (Netherlands). She has worked on several European health promotion programmes, including the Schools for Health in Europe (SHE network). She has also been involved in the development and implementation of the health promoting school in the Netherlands.

Reading suggestions

Sergio Fernando Jaime

Grace Gatera

Dr. Abhijit Nadkarni

Professor Nastaran Keshavarz Mohammadi 

Glenn Laverack

Raul Mercer and Mariela Alderete

Professor Chee Ng