The Health Systems Podcast

Migrants face significant barriers to accessing mental health services, exacerbated by discrimination, cultural and language barriers, lack of information about their rights, and fear of detention and deportation. Migrant women and the LGBT population are especially vulnerable due to gender-based violence and gender identity discrimination. In this episode, LHSS Chief of Party in Peru, Paulina Giusti talks with leaders from local organizations working to improve access to mental health services through psychosocial support networks in Peru and Colombia. This strategy helps mobilize people to be agents of change in their own mental health and in the community at large.  We speak to Rossina Guerrero, Director of the Center for the Promotion and Defense of Sexual and Reproductive Rights (PROMSEX) in Peru, Jesús D'Gregorio, a social activist working with the Center for Multidisciplinary Care for Vulnerable People in Peru, and María Alejandra Lopez Ríos from the University of Manizales in Colombia.   

Since the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the USAID Local Health System Sustainability Project (LHSS) has assisted governments with their prevention, detection, response, and vaccination efforts. But we’ve done more than help with immediate needs. Through all our support, LHSS has worked to strengthen countries’ capacity not only to fight COVID-19 but also to respond effectively to the health emergencies of the future. We’ve improved their resilience.  In this episode, three LHSS experts discuss health system resilience, and how COVID-19 has reinvigorated questions about how countries can shift from reacting to shocks to building in preparedness. 

Resource optimization and health service quality are key desired outcomes under USAID's Health System Strengthening Vision 2030. In a thoughtful and engaging conversation, LHSS Project Senior Technical Advisor for Human Resources for Health Kate Greene and LHSS Kyrgyz Republic Country Director Cholpon Asambaeva  explore how a new approach to nursing -- called the Universal Nurse Model -- is achieving both of these outcomes in the Kyrgyz Republic. 

Systems thinking is essential to the LHSS Project’s work with governments to co-design and co-implement effective measures to strengthen country health systems. But what exactly do we mean by systems thinking? In this episode, LHSS Technical Director Midori de Habich shares her well-honed understanding of systems thinking -- what it is, why it leads to more successful programs, and how to recognize when it is or is not needed. Following Ms. de Habich, LHSS-Colombia Chief of Party Miguel Pulido discusses how systems thinking is shaping the LHSS-Colombia program, which supports the Colombian government’s work to care for Venezuelan migrants and respond to COVID-19. 

USAID’s new Vision for Health System Strengthening 2030 calls for health systems that are not only high-performing but also sustainable. How can we get there? Lisa Tarantino, director of sustainability and transition for USAID’s Local Health System Sustainability Project, describes the project’s pioneering approach to collaborating with host countries towards health system improvements that will continue long after the project ends.    This episode of the Health Systems Podcast explores how the USAID LHSS Project is developing in-country capacity to ensure a more sustainable health system. We talk with Lisa to learn how the project engages with local partners, establishes a mutual vision, and collaborates to set, monitor, and measure progress toward goals.