Strengthening global health security - lessons learned from public health England's international health regulations strengthening project.

BACKGROUND: Country experiences of responding to the challenges of COVID-19 in 2020 highlighted how critical it is to have strong, in-country health security capacity. The UK government has invested in health security capacity development through various projects and agencies, including the UK Department of Health and Social Care, whose Global Health Security Programme provides funding to Public Health England (PHE) to implement health security support. This article describes the results and conclusions of the midterm evaluation, undertaken by Itad, of one of Public Health England's global health projects: International Health Regulations Strengthening, which operates across six countries and works with the Africa Centres for Disease Control. It also highlights some of the key lessons learned for the benefit of other agencies moving into supporting national health security efforts. RESULTS: The Itad team found strong evidence that the IHR Project is well aligned with, and responding to, partners' capability strengthening needs and that the three workstreams - systems coordination, workforce development and technical systems strengthening are implementing relevant and appropriate action to support national priorities. The IHR Project is also aligned with and complementary to other relevant UK development assistance although the Project could strengthen the strategic collaboration with WHO, US CDC and other UK government projects in countries. The Itad team also found that the IHR Project could be more effective if the technical assistance activities were accompanied by relevant materials and equipment while maintaining its supportive role. There was evidence of where technical assistance in the form of training and follow-up mentoring had led to improvements in practice and in IHR compliance, but these were not being systematically captured by the Project's routine reporting. CONCLUSIONS: There was good evidence that the project was doing the right things and aligning its work in the right way, with more limited evidence at the time of the midterm evaluation that it was making progress towards achieving the right results.

School psychology training within a competency framework: Transcending the past, present, and future.

In this special issue, Conoley et al. (2020) repeat the call for a paradigm shift in school psychology graduate education from the individual level to the system level and from secondary and tertiary intervention to primary prevention and implementation science to optimize environments for children's overall health and success. This article describes how school psychology training, as organized by professional standards of practice and credentialing, has evolved to its current status as a recognized specialty of practice within psychology. A review of the history of the accreditation and approval of school psychology programs, as well as the current status of competencies within these standards and procedures are presented. In addition, school psychology as a distinct specialty; various certifications, credentials, and licensure; professional identities; and recent developments in technology, telehealth, and cross-state credentialing are examined. The article includes a summary of how competencies are reflected in the most recent revisions of American Psychological Association accreditation, National Association of School Psychologists approval standards, and credentialing organizations such as Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards. Finally, we conclude with the assertion that development and adoption of these standards, competencies and professional recognition certifications, which are informed by the current zeitgeist in both health and education more broadly, might propel school psychology to fulfill the promise not yet achieved as outlined by Conoley and colleagues (2020). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

A taxonomy for education and training in professional psychology health service specialties: evolution and implementation of new guidelines for a common language.

The Education and Training Guidelines: A Taxonomy for Education and Training in Professional Psychology Health Service Specialties was endorsed as a policy of the American Psychological Association in 2012. These Guidelines have the potential for broad impact on the field by providing both a structure and recommendations for the consistent usage of language--definitions and terminology--to reduce current descriptive inconsistencies across education and training programs in professional psychology. The Guidelines are not designed to define specifics of the training or practice of individual psychologists; they are to be used only to describe programmatic structure in a consistent manner. This article details the developmental history of these Guidelines and highlights the strong alliance between the leaders of the various recognized specialties in professional psychology and the education and training community in health service psychology. The content, application, future dissemination and impact of the Guidelines are presented.

One-male harems and female social dynamics in Guinea baboons.

Little is known about the mating system and social organization of Guinea baboons. This study investigated whether Guinea baboons have a harem-based mating system similar to that of hamadryas and gelada baboons and whether one-male mating units also correspond to social units. Ten adult females in a captive multi-male multi-female group of Guinea baboons were focally observed 2 h per week for 12 weeks, and all observed copulations within the group were recorded. Some males copulated with a single female while others had harems of 2-4 females. All females copulated with a single male except 1 female that switched harems early in the study. The focal females had higher rates of social interaction with their harem members, especially their harem male, than with individuals outside the harem. Females appeared to be subordinate to the harem male but little or no physical aggression or herding behavior from the male was observed. Variation in female social interactions within the harem was not accounted for by their sexual interactions with the male or their genetic relatedness with the females. Females, however, appeared to maintain social relationships with their female relatives in other harems. Taken together, the results of this study show that both mating and affiliative interactions in Guinea baboons are concentrated within one-male units and that the social dynamics within and between these units share some similarities as well as differences with those of hamadryas and gelada baboons.

Bringing health care to schools.

AIM: To explore secondary school students' health knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, and to examine staff assessment of the Bodyzone project, in which confidential drop-in clinics for young people are set up at schools. METHODS: A cross-sectional study involving a questionnaire, participatory group assessments and staff interviews was used to gather data from students and staff at two schools for phase one of the evaluation. RESULTS: The results showed that the Bodyzone service is valued by those who use it and by school staff. CONCLUSION: The data suggest that the Bodyzone programme has many of the elements of a successful adolescent healthcare service and deals with a range of health and social problems experienced by young people. However, its small scale of operation hampers the capacity to provide an effective service to all who might need to access it.