The role of national hospital associations in health system governance before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from an exploratory online survey.

Objective: Building on the premise that health authorities should govern their health systems in partnership with the full community of stakeholders, we document the contribution of national hospital associations to health policy processes, before and during the COVID-19 crisis. Methods: This research followed a rapid cross-sectional comparative design. Data were collected through an online survey targeting hospital associations. Eighteen of them shared information on their institutional profile, their areas of activity, their position and participation as policy actors before and during the COVID-19 crisis, the barriers and enablers affecting their participation and the impact of the crisis on their own financial situation. Findings: We have documented a spectrum of situations both for national policy platforms and hospital associations. In some countries, there is the ideal match of well-established associations and national participatory health policy platforms. In others, hospital associations have modest staffing and may struggle to get access to policy platforms of importance. Being a well-established and respected contributor seems to have been an enabling factor for the contribution of the hospital associations to the COVID-19 response. For most associations, the crisis has led to an increased effort to be present in the policy arena; an issue they follow closely is the negative impact of the lockdown on the hospitals' revenue. Conclusion: The growing pluralism characterizing our societies calls for the establishment of health policy platforms allowing for broader participation. Encouraging hospitals to set up their association for the latter to represent them in decision processes could be one of the components of the rebuilding of national health systems post pandemic.

Força de trabalho em saúde mental no Brasil: os desafios da reforma psiquiátrica / Task force on mental health in Brazil: challenges of the psychiatric reform

O artigo analisa a formação de recursos humanos em saúde mental em uma conjuntura de mudança do modelo assistencial no Brasil, um dos países que mais rapidamente vêm adotando um modelo de atenção comunitária em substituição ao modelo asilar. Os autores argumentam que a preparação dos recursos humanos é um dos pontos mais frágeis no processo de mudança do modelo de atenção à saúde mental no Brasil, apesar de esta dificuldade não ser exclusivamente da área de saúde mental, mas de toda a Reforma Sanitária Brasileira. Segundo os autores, o desafio é planejar de maneira articulada à formação profissional e à política assistencial, articulando saúde e educação. A sustentabilidade da nova política assistencial no longo prazo requer a elaboração de políticas adequadas para os recursos humanos, bem como o enfrentamento da desigualdade distributiva da força de trabalho.

The paper analyzes mental health human resources training in a changing environment of the mental health delivery model in Brazil, a country that was one of the first to adopt a community care model to replace the one based on the asylum. The authors argue that the human resources training is one of the weakest points in the changing process of the mental health care model in Brazil, despite that this difficulty is exclusive of the mental health area. This problem seems to cut across the Brazilian Health Reform. According to the authors, the challenge is to plan co-ordinately the health system and the training policies, linking health and education. The long-term sustainability of the new health policy requires developing appropriate human resources policies, as well as to address the workforce distribution inequality.

Força de trabalho em saúde mental no Brasil: os desafios da reforma psiquiátrica / Task force on mental health in Brazil: the challenges of the psychiatric reform

O artigo analisa a formação de recursos humanos em saúde mental em uma conjuntura de mudança do modelo assistencial no Brasil, um dos países que mais rapidamente vêm adotando um modelo de atenção comunitária em substituição ao modelo asilar. Os autores argumentam que a preparação dos recursos humanos é um dos pontos mais frágeis no processo de mudança do modelo de atenção à saúde mental no Brasil, apesar de esta dificuldade não ser exclusivamente da área de saúde mental, mas de toda a Reforma Sanitária Brasileira. Segundo os autores, o desafio é planejar de maneira articulada à formação profissional e à política assistencial, articulando saúde e educação. A sustentabilidade da nova política assistencial no longo prazo requer a elaboração de políticas adequadas para os recursos humanos, bem como o enfrentamento da desigualdade distributiva da força de trabalho. (AU)