Latest news with #communityhealth
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
ScottsMiracle-Gro Believes in the Power of Green Spaces - Partners With U.S. Men's National Soccer Team Captain Tyler Adams and Every Kid Sports
NORTHAMPTON, MA / / July 24, 2025 / Our Scotts brand is proud to announce a new partnership with U.S. Men's National Soccer Team captain Tyler Adams and Every Kid Sports. This partnership is dedicated to increasing youth access to natural turf sports fields, as we believe in the power of green spaces to foster healthier, happier and stronger communities. For the official kick-off, Tyler hosted a field day at his childhood playing field in Wappingers Falls, New York, teaching soccer skills to local youth. He attributes his early success to his experiences as a youth athlete. And as a new father, he is adamant about spending time with his family outside. Tyler will help give back to local communities by working with Scotts to launch a nationwide Keep It Real sweepstakes, offering five youth sports nonprofit organizations the chance to win a natural turf field refurbishment and soccer balls signed by Adams. Learn more about the Keep It Real Movement and sweepstakes: View original content here. About ScottsMiracle-GroWith approximately $3.6 billion in sales, the Company is the world's largest marketer of branded consumer products for lawn and garden care. The Company's brands are among the most recognized in the industry. The Company's Scotts®, Miracle-Gro®, and Ortho® brands are market-leading in their categories. The Company's wholly-owned subsidiary, The Hawthorne Gardening Company, is a leading provider of nutrients, lighting, and other materials used in the indoor and hydroponic growing segment. For additional information, visit us at View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from ScottsMiracle-Gro on Contact Info:Spokesperson: ScottsMiracle-GroWebsite: Email: info@ SOURCE: ScottsMiracle-Gro View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New wellbeing hub launched at leisure centre
RiversMeet Active in Gillingham has launched a community-first wellbeing hub. The facility aims to support the physical, mental and social health of the community. The hub is part of a growing national trend toward community-based health solutions. These initiatives aim to ease the pressure on the NHS. RiversMeet Active's general manager, Jake, said: "We are very excited to be building on this impressive scheme whilst working in partnership with vital local resources. We are on a mission to improve the health of our community, watch this space." The hub is integrated with RiversMeet's GP referral programme. It offers low-impact classes for those recovering from illness or injury, living with long-term health conditions or looking to improve their overall wellbeing. The sessions are designed to be inclusive and accessible to all community members. Dorset Mind, a local charity supporting mental health, will operate from the hub every Monday. They will provide a drop-in mental health service, working in conjunction with the existing GP referral pathways. READ: Gym shuts suddenly as 'new partner' sought to take over existing brand Integrated with RiversMeet's GP referral programme, the Hub offers low-impact classes for people recovering from illness or injury. (Image: Plans for additional services at the hub include physiotherapy, sports massage, counselling, nutrition groups, anxiety and parent support sessions and discreet contraception services for students. The hub is a collaborative effort, with support from Gillingham-based company, Dextra Group. They hope the hub will be a valuable resource for their employees, their families and the wider community. The hub is designed to be an inclusive and accessible space for everyone, including those with long-term health conditions, students, carers and older adults. It aims to be more than just a gym, but a key community resource for Gillingham and beyond. It is hoped the hub will promote health, connection and support within the community. This project represents a significant step towards improving community health and reducing the strain on NHS services.
BBC News
08-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Plans for NHS diagnostic centre in Peterborough win approval
Plans for a community diagnostic centre aimed at reducing patient waiting times have been means building work can begin next month on the facility in Wellington Street, Peterborough, which should be open in West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, which submitted the plans, said it would offer scans and cardiology and respiratory diagnostic Coffey, its chief executive, said she was "incredibly pleased" that planning approval had been granted. "As an organisation, we are working tirelessly on reducing diagnostic wait times, and opening the [centre] will undoubtedly improve patient experience," she Coffey said the government's 10-year plan for the NHS had highlighted the need to shift care out of hospitals and into the centre will have CT, MRI, Dexa, X-ray, ultrasound and fibroscan Pakes, the Labour MP for Peterborough, said it would ease pressure on hospitals."As Peterborough grows, we need local services that grow with us," he said."This centre is a big boost for patients and for our brilliant NHS staff."The plans were approved by Peterborough City Council on Monday. Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
News24
08-07-2025
- Health
- News24
How frontline workers in KZN are helping fight the mental health crisis
South Africa does not have enough psychologists and psychiatrists to meet the mental health needs of everyone in the country. One solution is to train community healthcare workers to provide some basic mental health support. Spotlight explores how one such task-sharing project is being scaled up in KwaZulu-Natal. It's a Wednesday morning in the Amajuba district near Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal. A community healthcare worker walks into a brick government-subsidised house for her routine visit to the family living there. This is the picture painted by Professor Inge Petersen, director of the Centre for Research in Health systems at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Anna, the community healthcare worker in this hypothetical example, is familiar with the households she visits, and is aware things are not going well in this home. She knows that one woman in particular is struggling with her mental health and may have depression. In addition to her basic healthcare training, Anna's also been trained to use a special guide that helps families better understand mental health and spot when someone might need extra support or care. Anna may have been made up to illustrate a point, but the guide, called the Community Mental Health Education and Detection (CMED) tool, is real and has been adopted by the KwaZulu-Natal health department and is currently being used in parts of the province. The initiative is part of a growing trend where different health tasks are shared among a wider range of trained workers, not just doctors or specialists. This so-called task-sharing idea is that, since South Africa has far too few psychologists and psychiatrists to meet the needs of everyone in the country, other types of healthcare workers can share the load. Though community healthcare workers aren't qualified to prescribe scheduled medicines or treat serious mental health issues, they can provide some support and refer more complicated cases on to others. 'It's no secret that our health services are under enormous strain,' says Professor Dan Stein, head of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town. 'Given the resources, in psychiatry, we largely focus on serious mental disorders and we're not able to address fully the common mental disorders - depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders.' Even though reliable data on mental health in South Africa is sparse, available data suggests that the burden is substantial. A landmark epidemiological survey published in 2009 – the first large-scale population-based study of common mental disorders in South Africa – found that around one in six people had a mental health disorder in the preceding 12 months. Around three in 10 of the over 4 300 people surveyed had had a mental health disorder at some point in their lives, and it was estimated that close to half of people would experience one at some point in their lives. In a more recent survey published in 2022, one in four people reported symptoms of moderate or severe depression and around 18% reported symptoms of anxiety. In a study published in 2019, researchers estimate that less than 10% of people in South Africa are receiving the mental health services they need. They found that in the public sector, there were 0.31 psychiatrists and 0.97 psychologists per 100 000 people, though there were large variations between provinces and between urban and rural areas. The researchers found that around 4.6% of the state's health spending goes to mental health and that around 86% of that goes to in-patient care. Green, orange, or red Back with our hypothetical example in Amajuba, Anna greets the members of the household. In the room is Ma Mkhize, who lost her daughter recently. Apart from still grieving, she's also very stressed about how she will manage to support her daughter's three children. Ma Mkhize's sister and two young adult male family members are also present. Petersen says: While talking to the family, Anna likens mental health to a thermometer with a green, an orange and a red zone. 'Anna explains that when people are in the green zone mentally, they're healthy; in the orange zone, they feel a bit stressed; and in the red zone, everything's becoming too much. Doing her best to normalise mental health conditions, she explains how people shift along this emotional health 'thermometer'.' Anna would then have read the story of Nontobeko - a woman whose husband lost his job three months ago, and who is constantly worrying about how she'll feed her children, is always tired, has a low appetite and struggles to sleep. 'Once she's read the story about Nontobeko, Anna asks the family if the story reminds them of someone in the household. If they say yes, she uses an algorithm - developed to describe the symptoms - to determine whether Ma Mkhize should be further screened for depression at the local clinic,' says Petersen. The next step One of the keys to this approach is that community healthcare workers like Anna can provide support up to a certain level. It might be that no referral is needed and that that support from someone like Anna is enough to help someone through a difficult period. But in Ma Mkhize's case, Anna has to refer. At the clinic, Ma Mkhize would see an enrolled nurse, who, besides, checking her vital signs, like her blood pressure, also does a more in-depth mental health screening. The next step for Ma Mkhize would be to attend a consultation with a professional nurse at the clinic who assesses her for depression, using Adult Primary Care guidelines that include mental health conditions. 'If she's diagnosed as having a mental health condition, she will be referred to a psychological counsellor at the nearest community health centre for counselling; and/or to a primary healthcare doctor on the doctor's next visit to the clinic; or to a district hospital if symptoms are severe,' says Petersen. 'Layering mental health into the system' Signs are that government, at least in KwaZulu-Natal, are buying into the idea of this type of task-sharing. 'Task-sharing assists us as a province with early detection and management of common mental health conditions,' says Dr Nikiwe Hongo, Director for Mental Health in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. 'Early interventions are then provided to avoid catastrophic manifestations much later. We have employed mid-level registered psychological counsellors within primary healthcare facilities to assist with this. It helps avoid unnecessary referrals to higher levels of care with few specialist resources available. We continue to roll out capacity building for early detection by household community health workers and intensive screening and assessment by nurses at the clinic level.' These programmes are the culmination of much previous work. For the past seven years, Petersen says she and her colleagues have been working closely with the provincial health department to increase access to mental health services for adults by integrating mental health into primary care. She says: Together with the department, we have developed and refined the way we are layering mental health into the system along the care cascade. Innovations have been introduced along the patient pathway, so that mental health is part of every contact a person might have with the healthcare system. 'Task-sharing as a policy is strongly supported by the World Health Organisation and South Africa has adopted it into our national policy framework and action plan, but the implementation has been a challenge,' says Petersen. She explains that while it's challenging to provide exact numbers of healthcare workers trained in KwaZulu-Natal, since trainers are equipped to train others within their own districts, the available figures suggest that several hundred have already been reached. The initiative has also expanded beyond KwaZulu-Natal, with healthcare workers in one district in Limpopo and another in the Northern Cape currently undergoing training. 'A huge dilemma' Dr Ingrid Daniels, chief executive officer of Cape Mental Health and a past president of the World Federation for Mental Health, agreed the gap between need and resources in mental health services is dire. 'A huge dilemma South Africa faces is the fact that social determinants such as poverty, unemployment, and gender-based violence exacerbate mental health problems. 'This is further complicated by substance use, which is highly prevalent contributing to the burden of disease. On one hand, we have increasing prevalence of mental health issues among our population, and on the other, government-funded, state-run mental health services for 84 percent of our population, which are under resourced and often working among communities in dire circumstances,' she says. Daniels says a burning question is how we can transform our mental health services to make them more accessible. 'Task-sharing is one of the best evidence-based interventions that have been very successful. It's successful because we have a serious human resource shortage for mental health in South Africa. On top of that, we have insufficient social workers, as well as insufficient psychiatrists. 'We're not going to narrow the treatment gap any time soon within the next decade or two, so task-sharing is critical because basically … you are providing the necessary knowledge and education to a community health worker,' she says. Ultimately, in the context of scarce mental health resources, Petersen says 'integrating mental health into existing health services provided by general healthcare workers through task-sharing is the only viable solution to closing the mental health treatment gap'. While all the experts Spotlight interviewed for this article seem to agree with that view, the details of how to go about implementing the 'solution' is less clear-cut. It is in helping map this out that the work in KwaZulu-Natal is taking the field forward.
Zawya
04-07-2025
- Health
- Zawya
Africa: How to escape the trap of curative consumption for health production?
Africa stands at a pivotal moment in its health journey. While challenges such as shifting global priorities and reduced donor support are significant, the more pressing issue lies within the very foundation of our health systems. At the heart of the problem is a structural design that focuses more on responding to illness than on keeping people healthy. With a population of over 1.4 billion — and expected to represent one in five people globally in the near future — the continent finds itself caught in a troubling paradox. Even as we make strides in managing infectious diseases, many African health systems remain under-resourced, stretched thin, and heavily reliant on curative care. The emphasis continues to be on costly, hospital-based treatments rather than on prevention, health education, and community-based approaches that could ease the burden of disease and improve overall well-being. This model is neither sustainable nor equitable, and it keeps us locked in what I call the 'curative consumption trap.' It drains our already limited resources, perpetuates inequities, and undermines our vision for universal health coverage (UHC). It's time to shift from a reactive, hospital-centric model to one that invests in health production — resilient, community-driven, people-centred systems that prevent disease, empower people, and build a healthier future for all Africans. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that high-income countries spend around $4,000 per capita on healthcare, mostly through public financing. In sub-Saharan Africa, that figure is closer to $40, and that's assuming countries meet the aspirational goal of allocating 15 percent of national budgets to health. Most do not. Can Africa afford healthcare as currently structured? The answer is clearly no. This consumption-based model has colonial roots built for the rich who came to Africa and needed a health system that reflected their needs as they were used to back in their home countries and reinforced by political incentives that favour short-term infrastructure projects over long-term people-centred reforms. During the recent Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) 2025 in Kigali, it was evident that many African health systems still focus on treating disease rather than preventing it — a legacy that must be urgently overcome. The curative consumption trap: A vicious cycleHospitals and clinics often serve as the epicentre of care, with resources skewed toward expensive, tertiary-level interventions that politicians prioritise to appeal to voters. This curative bias is evident and at the expense of addressing preventative measures needed to reduce the disease burden, such as the rising tide of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. In 2019, NCDs accounted for 37 percent of deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, up from 24 percent in 2000, and the burden is rising. Our systems are ill-equipped to manage this growing crisis. The curative consumption trap is fuelled by several factors. First, a post-colonial bias for infrastructure-heavy, specialist-led care over community-based approaches informed by the health needs of those who built the health systems. Second, a health workforce trained to treat illness, not promote wellness. In medical school, for instance, I recall spending just one lethargic month on community health attachment, compared to years learning about diagnosis, surgery, and pharmacology. This narrative is supported by political incentive as infrastructure is a politician vote driver and historical budgeting approaches prioritise infrastructure and equipment procurement. Third, a lack of trust in unfriendly distant supply-driven health systems leads people to seek care only when they are really sick, resulting in late diagnoses and high treatment costs. This isn't just a health issue, but a social and economic crisis. When systems focus on curing instead of preventing, they consume scarce financial and human resources while ignoring root causes such as unsafe water, poor sanitation, undernutrition, and the proliferation of unhealthy processed foods full of industrial trans fats and sweetened beverages. The result is high costs for health services with families pushed into poverty by catastrophic healthcare costs from out of pocket expenditure. The result is a vicious cycle where illness perpetuates poverty, and poverty perpetuates illness. Shifting the focus to health productionTo break this cycle, we need to embrace a model of health production: one that keeps people healthy, empowers communities, and addresses social determinants of health. It should be proactive, equitable, people-centred and sustainable, ensuring that every African has access to the tools and knowledge to live a healthy life, including reproductive health services for adolescents and women. This requires two major shifts. First, we must prioritise preventive and promotive health. Prevention is the cornerstone of health production. Evidence shows that primary healthcare, with a focus on primary care and prevention, community empowerment and engagement and multi-sectorial approaches improves health outcomes, enhances equity, and increases system efficiency. Yet, only 48 percent of Africans have access to primary healthcare services, leaving 615 million people without adequate services. To address this, we need to invest in community health systems including Community Health workers (CHWs), who are the backbone of primary healthcare. CHWs are often the first and only point of contact for underserved communities. They deliver preventive services such as vaccines, they educate communities on healthy practices, and detect early warning signs of disease, yet, many remain underpaid, undertrained, and disconnected from formal health systems. Governments need to commit to financing and integrating CHW programmes into national health systems, as outlined in the 2018 WHO guidelines— not as stopgaps, but as core pillars of national health strategy. Promotive health also means tackling the social determinants of health—poverty, education, clean water and sanitation, nutrition, and environmental factors. We also need policies that tackle risk factors. Taxing unhealthy products like industrial trans fats, tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages can reduce the burden of NCDs while generating revenue for health programmes. These funds can be channelled into community-led initiatives that promote clean water, sanitation, and nutrition, addressing the root causes of disease. Second, we need to empower communities as active participants in their health. Health systems cannot succeed without the trust and participation of the people they serve. Too often, African health systems are designed around institutions and diseases rather than people. Some have jokingly referred to our ministries of health as "ministries of disease" — a reflection of how disconnected the system can feel from lived realities. Communities — including youth, women, and marginalised groups — must have a seat at the decision-making table. Health policies should be co-designed and governed by those they are meant to serve. It's time to update the current WHO framework and recognise 'people' as the seventh building block of effective health systems, alongside service delivery, health workforce, information systems, health financing, access to medicines and health technologies, as well as leadership governance. Empowering communities also requires fostering accountability. Civil society-led mechanisms can hold governments, private sector and other partners accountable for delivering on UHC commitments, ensuring that policies align with the principles of social justice. By giving communities a stake in their health systems, we can build trust, encourage early health-seeking behaviour, and reduce the reliance on curative care. Moreover, African governments must address inefficiencies and corruption, optimising the use of limited resources. By embracing digital technology and artificial intelligence, we can improve health data systems, enhance service delivery, and target interventions more effectively noting technology must be deployed at the community level, not just in hospitals, to enhance equitable access, particularly at the last mile. A call to action: Building the health systems of the futureThe curative consumption trap is a legacy of colonial health systems and misaligned global priorities. It is not inevitable. Africa has the opportunity to redefine its health agenda, leveraging its youthful population, rich cultural heritage, and growing technological innovation. But this requires bold leadership and collective action. African governments should prioritise health in national budgets, recognising that health is not a cost but an investment in human capital for socioeconomic development. Donors and global health partners must shift their focus from short-term, disease-specific interventions to long-term health system strengthening in line with the Lusaka Agenda, an effort for all to prioritise strengthening health systems, promoting sustainable health financing and enhancing equity through national level co-ordination. As we approach 2030, the deadline for achieving UHC, we must decide: Do we continue down the path of reactive, costly care with limited returns or do we embrace a model that produces health, dignity, and opportunity for all?The curative trap may be the legacy we inherited, but health production is the legacy we must build. © Copyright 2022 Nation Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
