Mental Health, Violence and Injuries (MVI)
Publications - Mental Health, Violence and Injuries
Regional Strategy for Mental Health 2000 - 2010 (3.6 MB)
Violence and Health in the WHO African Region (3.98 MB)
Status Report on Road Safety in Countries of the WHO African Region
WHO-AIMS Report on the Mental Health System in Eritrea (849.27 kB)
AFRO consultation report on a global strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol (262.42 kB)
mhGAP - Mental Health Gap Action Programme (802.35 kB)
WHO's Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) provides health planners, policy-makers, and donors with a set of clear and coherent activities and programmes for scaling up care for mental, neurological, and substance use disorders. It attempts to deliver an integrated package of interventions for prevention and management for several identified priority conditions, and takes into account existing and possible barriers for scaling up care. Neuroscience of psychoactive substance use and dependence (1.82 MB)
This report describes our current understanding of the neuroscience of psychoactive substance use and dependence. It draws on the explosive growth in knowledge in this area in recent decades, which has transformed our understanding of the biochemical action of psychoactive substances, and contributed new insights into why many people use them, and why some use them to the extent of causing harm or of becoming dependent on them.
Brief Intervention for Substance Use: A Manual for Use in Primary Care (160.22 kB)
The purpose of this manual is to explain the theoretical basis and evidence for brief intervention and to assist primary health care workers to conduct a simple brief intervention for risky or harmful drug use. Together with the ASSIST guidelines for use manual, this manual presents a comprehensive approach to screening and brief intervention which is tailored to the specific circumstances of primary care and is designed to improve the health of populations and patient groups as well as individuals.
The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) (238.47 kB)
The purpose of this manual is to introduce the ASSIST and to describe how to use it in primary health care settings to identify people with hazardous or harmful drug use. The ASSIST is the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test. It is a brief screening questionnaire to find out about people's use of psychoactive substances. It was developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and an international team of substance use researchers as a simple method of screening for hazardous, harmful and dependent use of alcohol, tobacco and other psychoactive substances. The questionnaire covers tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine type stimulants, sedatives, hallucinogens, inhalants, opioids, and other drugs. Self-Help Strategies for Cutting Down or Stopping Substance Use: A Guide (414.49 kB)
This is a self-help guide that helps the reader to weigh up his/her substance use habits and gives him/her some ideas about how to change them. It is designed for people who are at moderate risk of substance related problems and who do not have severe substance related problems or dependence. Mental Health Policy and Service Guidance Package: Monitoring and evaluation of policies and plans (511.95 kB)
This module is part of the WHO Mental Health Policy and Service guidance package, which provides practical information to assist countries to improve the mental health of their populations. It examines what comprises monitoring and evaluation. It explains the monitoring of a plan and the different ways of evaluating both a policy and plan. It describes a five-step process for conducting evaluations and examines how results of an evaluation can be utilized to improve policies and plans. The module then provides a detailed example of a policy and plan using a case study of a hypothetical country, and examines various ways that evaluation can be used over a period of time to assess and influence policy and the plan stemming from it. Mental Health Policy and Service Guidance Package: Mental health policy, plans and programmes (779.88 kB)
This module is part of the WHO Mental Health Policy and Service guidance package, which provides practical information to assist countries to improve the mental health of their populations. It presents evidence-based guidance for the development and implementation of mental health policies, plans and programmes. The experiences of several countries are used as practical sources for drawing up mental health policies and implementing them through plans and programmes.
Mental Health Policy and Service Guidance Package: The Mental Health Context (619.74 kB)
The Mental Health Policy and Service Guidance Package has been developed by WHO as a component of the Mental Health Global Action Project in order to assist policymakers and service planners in addressing mental health and to help Member States with the implementation of the policy recommendations in The World Health Report 2001. The present module is the first in the guidance package. It describes the context in which mental health is being addressed and the purpose and content of the package.
WHO Technical Consultation on Public Health Problems Caused by Harmful Use of Alcohol (1.82 MB)
The WHO Technical Consultation on the Public Health Problems Caused by Harmful Use of Alcohol in the African Region was held at WHO/AFRO, Brazzaville, Congo, from 10-12 May 2006. During the three-day consultation the delegates outlined the burden of alcohol consumption, and policies and programmatic responses to harmful alcohol consumption in the region. They also debated and discussed recommendations for regional mechanisms to support country and regional efforts to address the burden of alcohol consumption in the region.
Substance Use in Southern Africa Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices and Opportunities for Intervention (835.04 kB)
This report provides a summary of the baseline research findings of 2001 on issues such as extent of substance use among young people, socioeconomic status, feasibility of primary prevention, ethnicity and population growth/change extracted from the reports from South Africa, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia respectively under the WHO/UNDCP Global Initiative. The report also presents interventions proposed by each of the countries. This information provides a basis for determining the effectiveness of interventions adopted by local partners in participating sites at the conclusion of the Global Initiative. IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (816 kB)
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) issues these Guidelines to enable humanitarian actors to plan, establish and coordinate a set of minimum multi-sectoral responses to protect and improve people's mental health and psychosocial well-being in the midst of an emergency.
Populations affected by emergencies frequently experience enormous suffering. Humanitarian actors are increasingly active to protect and improve people's mental health and psychosocial well-being during and after emergencies
Epilepsy in the WHO African Region: Bridging the Gap (2.49 kB)
The present report introduces both the lay reader and the professional to epilepsy, which affects more than 50 million people worldwide, thus making this medical condition an important public health problem. It also provides a panoramic view of the epilepsy situation in the Region, outlines the initiatives taken by WHO and other partners to address the problem, defines the current challenges and offers appropriate recommendations.
Epilepsy: A manual for Medical and Clinical Officers in Africa (486.86 kB)
This manual has been prepared to help those people (medical officers, clinical officers and nurses) who are responsible for the primary health care of these patients and who may be working in the rural areas. As early treatment of convulsions and of epilepsy is very important, it is essential to start correct treatment immediately. But in order to be able to start this treatment, the doctor or clinical officer needs to know the causes of the seizures and epilepsy, what type of seizure and epilepsy the patient has, and which drug should be used.
Violence, injuries and disabilities
Vehicles, Road Traffic Deaths and Proportion of Road Users by Country (186.69 kB)
First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety: Moscow Declaration (26.17 kB)
Global Status Report on Road Safety - Time for Action (4.89 MB)
Approximately 1.3 million people die each year on the world's roads, and between 20 and 50 million sustain non-fatal injuries. The Global status report on road safety is the first broad assessment of the road safety situation in 178 countries, using data drawn from a standardized survey. The results show that road traffic injuries remain an important public health problem, particularly for low-income and middle-income countries. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists make up almost half of those killed on the roads, highlighting the need for these road users to be given more attention in road safety programmes. The results suggest that in many countries road safety laws need to be made more comprehensive while enforcement should be strengthened. The Global status report on road safety results clearly show that significantly more action is needed to make the world's roads safer. Guidelines on the provision of Manual Wheelchairs in less resourced settings (1.89 MB)
Violence, Injuries and Disability - Biennial report 2006-2007 (2.99 MB)
Implementing the recommendations of the World Report on Violence & Health (WHA56.24) (137 kB)
Global elimination of blinding trachoma: WHA 51.11 (6 kB)
Prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment: WHA 59.25 (16.77 kB)
Elimination of avoidable blindness: WHA 56.26 (103 kB)
Disability and Technologies Event (135.93 kB)
A/61/611 Final report of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International (197.71 kB)
A/61/611 Final report of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities
WHA58.23 Disability, including prevention, management and rehabilitation (20.7 kB)
