Mental health information at your fingertips – WHO launches the MiNDbank

10 December 2013 | GENEVA - MiNDbank, a new WHO database goes online today, presenting a wealth of information about mental health, substance abuse, disability, human rights and the different policies, strategies, laws and service standards being implemented in different countries. It also contains key international documents and information.

Launched on Human Rights Day, the platform is part of WHO’s QualityRights initiative, aiming to end human rights violations against people with mental health conditions.

“People with mental disabilities still face discrimination, violence and abuse in all countries,” says Dr Michelle Funk, from WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. “The easy-to-use platform was established as a tool to facilitate debate, dialogue, advocacy and research on mental health, to improve care and to promote human rights across the globe.”

The care available in mental health facilities may often not only be of poor quality but can also hinder recovery. It can still be common in some countries for people to be locked away in small, prison-like cells with no human contact or to be chained to their beds, unable to move. The MiNDbank will help decision makers to address these issues, support reform efforts and ultimately improve the lives of people with mental health conditions in line with the Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020, adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2013.

The database, established with support from a broad range of partners, allows visitors to tap into the health information of WHO Member States and other partners. Users can review policies, laws and strategies and search for best practices and success stories in the field of mental health.

“If a government, for example, wishes to develop a new mental health policy in line with international human rights standards it can - on the new platform - quickly get an overview about the policies of other countries and benefit from their experiences and an array of international guidance tools and resources,“ explains Nathalie Drew, WHO Technical Officer working on mental health and human rights. So far, already more than 160 countries are sharing key mental health information through the MiNDbank and updates will be provided on a regular basis.

The WHO QualityRights initiative was launched in 2012, as part of the drive to raise human rights and quality standards in mental health and social care. The goal is to end human rights violations against people with mental health conditions and promote high-quality mental health services in the community.

For more information please contact:

Fadela Chaib
Communications Officer/Spokesperson
WHO
Telephone: +41 22 791 3228
Mobile: +41 79 475 5556
E-mail: chaibf@who.int

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Pakistani army launches offensive near Afghan border

By Maria Golovnina

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Residents of Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun region of North Waziristan accused government troops on Monday of killing dozens of civilians during a military operation against Taliban insurgents.

The operation started just after a December 18 suicide bomb attack on a checkpoint in North Waziristan, a stronghold for al Qaeda-linked Taliban militants on Pakistan's mountainous border with Afghanistan.

Speculation that the army might launch a major offensive in the frontier tribal areas has been building as the government's attempts to engage the Pakistani Taliban in peace talks have floundered in recent months.

Military officials said more than 30 militants, most of them ethnic Uzbeks, had been killed in the operation.

"Security forces exercised utmost restraint to avoid any collateral damage," the army said in a statement.

"The Pakistan military spokesman reiterated that the military action against the terrorists in North Waziristan on December 19 was in response to an attempt by terrorists to ambush a military convoy.

"The intelligence-based sting military operation later was specifically targeted against foreign terrorists holed up in a nearby compound."

Foreign militants from various places including central Asia have long been known to be based in the region.

The army in its statement did not say anything about residents' accusations of civilian casualties. The military's media wing could not be immediately reached for comment.

Pakistani authorities imposed a curfew and residents said many people had fled from their homes after days of shelling and raids by helicopter gunships in the Mir Ali region of North Waziristan following the suicide attack.

Resident Muhammed Tayyab said he lost three of his children and his wife in the shelling.

"On the first day of the attack an artillery shell hit the room where my kids and wife were sleeping," Tayyab told Reuters by telephone. "The government has put them to sleep forever."

"WHERE IS SAFE?"

Residents put the civilian death toll at several dozen.

"From the first day of the attack until now 70 civilians have been killed," said a tribal elder in Mir Ali who declined to be identified for fear of state reprisals.

"Some truck drivers and hotel and shop keepers were shot directly, and dozens were killed by gunships, mortars, and artillery shelling on the civilian population."

Reports from North Waziristan are hard to verify independently because journalists and observers are not allowed to work on the ground in the heavily militarized region.

The Pashtun lands along the Afghan border have never been brought under the full control of any government.

Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur said insurgents would respond by launching a full-scale counter-offensive on army positions if attacks against civilians did not stop on Monday.

Residents said bodies were left in the open in the villages of Mosaki and Hasukhel as terrified villagers fled the area.

"We are moving our families to keep them safe but the army's mortars and shells are following us," said Asad Sher of Mir Ali. "Please tell us where is safe. The army is demolishing our homes and bazaars."

Malik Gul Salehjan, another man, said: "My children are asking me for bread but I am not able to give them anything because there is nothing in my house."

A North Waziristan administration official said tribal elders and army representatives convened a jirga, or meeting, on Monday to try to find a negotiated end to hostilities.

(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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'Obamacare' launches amid shutdown

1 October 2013 Last updated at 10:47 ET

The Obamacare website - HealthCare.gov - launched on 1 October

A central provision of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law has taken effect, having survived Republicans' years-long effort to undermine it.

Markets run by federal and state governments opened for the millions of Americans seeking insurance plans.

As many as seven million Americans who do not already have health insurance are eligible to purchase coverage in the coming months.

Republican opposition to the law led to the government shutdown on Tuesday.

While Mr Obama and his supporters in the Democratic Party portray the law as a historic effort to extend healthcare coverage to the millions of Americans who lack it, the law's opponents say it amounts to an unprecedented intrusion into Americans' private lives.

The opening of the private health insurance marketplaces, or exchanges, was the culmination of more than three years of political combat in Washington over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010 and known to both sides as Obamacare.

'Shutdown triggered'

Republicans in Washington and in state capitals across the country have vehemently fought the law since its passage, with the US House of Representatives taking dozens of symbolic votes to repeal it or eliminate its funding.

A legal challenge led by Republican opponents of the law ended when the Supreme Court in June 2012 validated the law's keystone provision - a requirement that Americans not receiving health coverage from their employers or the government purchase individual plans or pay a fine.

That requirement, known as the individual mandate, takes effect in January.

The healthcare law was also a central issue in the 2012 presidential election. Republican candidate Mitt Romney vowed to press for its repeal. Mr Obama handily won re-election.

On Tuesday, the US government shut non-essential services, keeping more than 700,000 workers at home, when the Democrats who control the Senate refused to agree to Republican demands to repeal the health law or delay the individual mandate.

Both Mr Obama and congressional Democrats have said they will not negotiate on Obamacare, with Mr Obama on Monday evening accusing the Republicans of attempting to refight the last election.

In spite of the political turmoil in Washington, on Tuesday Americans were able to enrol in insurance plans offered by private companies and ranging in price and level of coverage through exchanges in every state.

Even supporters of the law anticipated that technical glitches and consumer confusion would slow adoption.

Sixteen states and Washington DC have opted to operate their own exchanges, while the exchanges in 34 states will be fully or partially run by the federal government.

'Major concession'

Exchanges will also inform customers of tax subsidies available to ease the cost of the insurance. An estimated six million US citizens are expected to qualify.

Customers enrolling under Obamacare will not be covered by the insurance until 1 January however.

That corresponds with the start of the individual mandate, as well as consumer protections including a rule barring insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions.

Several Obamacare provisions had taken effect prior to Tuesday, including prescription drug discounts for pensioners, a rule allowing children to remain on their parents' insurance plans up to age 26, a rule barring insurers from denying coverage to children with pre-existing health conditions, and a ban on lifetime limits on health coverage.

Another major provision known as the employer mandate - which requires employers with at least 50 full-time workers to provide insurance or incur a $2,000 (￡1,320) per employee penalty - has been delayed until 2015.

That delay, announced by the Obama administration in July, has been seen as a concession to retailers and other businesses - and an acknowledgement that the health law was not fully ready for implementation.

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