Primary Health Care: Expectations and Tasks for Public Health in Trinidad and Tobago.

The government of Trinidad and Tobago considers that the enjoyment of the highest attainable level of health is a basic right of every citizen and has a goal to achieve health for all by 2020. Thus it lays emphasis on caring and assures standards of excellence to promote, protect and improve the health status of the people of Trinidad and Tobago. To achieve these goals it is very important to increase curative services as well as preventive services in the country. In view of this situation there is a need to overcome the challenges the public health by involving community and individuals and self-reliance to achieve Health for all at 2020. Community participation is one of the domains of community capacity building in a small island country. It is one of the mechanisms to empower people to take part in community development. In this paper, the nature, the dimensions of community participation, and its role and scope in implementation of different components of primary health care have been described. The health services in public and remedial care have been discussed. The article highlights some important milestone achievements in the health sector in Trinidad.

Community-based rehabilitation and the Clubhouse Model as means to recovery and mental health services reform / Rehabilitación basada en la comunidad y el modelo Clubhouse como medio de recuperación y reforma de los servicios de salud mental

The article focuses on the trends of community-based rehabilitation (CBR) and the psychosocial Clubhouse rehabilitation model (CH) as tools for mental health (MH) policy reforms. It is based on documentation of the transnational project ôEmpowering Adults with Mental Illness for Learning and Social Inclusion in the years 2010-2012õ and other sources. The collection of data and subsequent analysis were prepared in the context of about 30 international MH policy recommendations from the 1990s until 2012. The documents were analyzed and compared with different recovery-oriented approaches like the CH model and with the key concepts of rehabilitation science, linked with the recent trends of the psychosocial rehabilitation. Some of the most important intergovernmental MH policy recommendations are the United Nations (UN) Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD, UN 2006), the joint CBR û Guidelines of the WHO (2010), ILO, UNESCO and several international associations as the WAPR (WAPR & WHO Consensus Statement 1996), as well as the WHO Pyramid Framework for the Optimal mix of MH services (WHO 2007), complemented with the WHOÆs Comprehensive MH Action Plan 2013-2020 approved in May 2013. All these sources include the spectrum of MH disorders. The combining factors are the human rights û based on a more holistic understanding of the disabilities instead of a merely medical approach. All the above recommendations are aimed at worldwide utilization.

Se examinan las tendencias de rehabilitación basada en la comunidad (CBR) y el modelo de rehabilitación psicosocial denominado Clubhouse (CH) como instrumentos de políticas de reforma de la Salud Mental (MH). El trabajo se basa en documentación del proyecto transnacional ôEmpoderamiento de adultos con enfermedad mental para aprendizaje e inclusión social en 2010-2012õ además de otras fuentes. La colección de datos y subsecuentes análisis se prepararon en el contexto de cerca de 30 recomendaciones internacionales de políticas de salud mental desde los años 90 hasta el 2012. Los documentos fueron analizados y comparados con diferentes enfoques orientados a la recuperación, tales como el modelo CH, y con conceptos clave de la ciencia de Rehabilitación, vinculados con tendencias recientes de la rehabilitación psicosocial. Algunas de las más importantes recomendaciones intergubernamentales de políticas de salud mental son las Guías conjuntas de Trabajo de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) y UNESCO y varias asociaciones internacionales tales como la Asociación Mundial de Rehabilitación Psiquiátrica (WAPR) y el Marco Piramidal de la OMS para la óptima combinación de servicios de Salud Mental, complementados con el Plan Integral de Acción en Salud Mental 2013-2020 aprobado por la OMS este año. Todas estas fuentes incluyen el espectro total de trastornos mentales. Factores de combinación son los derechos humanos, basados en una comprensión más holística de las discapacidades en lugar de un enfoque meramente médico. Todas estas recomendaciones están orientadas a su utilización a nivel global.