GID 2022
Health

Global Integrity Day 2022
Integrity and Corruption in the Health Sector
Moral Health for a More Whole World

Reflections and Resources

Linking the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Poverty SDG 1-Health SDG 3-Corruption SDG 16

--"End poverty in all its forms everywhere."
Sustainable Development Goal 1
--"Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages."
Sustainable Development Goal 3
--"Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels."  
Sustainable Development Goal 16
--"Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms ."
Sustainable Development Goal 16.5
--"Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels ."
Sustainable Development Goal 16.6
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Reflections

--Integrity in the health sector and government—Decisive faith-based input! “England's former Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, says he first thought about leaving Boris Johnson's Conservative government a week ago. What resolved him to quit, he told the BBC's Sunday Morning show, was hearing a sermon on integrity at a prayer breakfast in Parliament on Tuesday." Read the story at  BBC News, 10 July 2022

--Great example of what can be done to investigate-confront and prosecute-punish corporate financial corrupton (with adequate resources and resolve)! "Glencore pays more than $1 billion in four-agency settlementThe Swiss commodities trader admitted paying bribes throughout Africa and South America in settlements with four agencies in the US, UK and Brazil. Corruption probes in Switzerland and the Netherlands, however, continue."  Global Investigative Report 25 May 2022.  See also the Summary from the Department of Justice (DOJ)--US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York as well as this two-minute video announcement and overview by the DOJ "...no one, not even multinational corporations, is above the law."
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--COVID Care: Reflections and Resources (updated February 2022). Member Care Associates. "Pandemics, like many crises, bring out the best and the worst in us--our selfless and our selfish qualities. The reality of the uncertainties and anxieties of life, and indeed survival--existential risk--is heavy upon the world. Positively, the current COVID-19 pandemic certainly provides plenty of opportunities for us all, individually and collectively, to reflect on the types of people we want to be, the types of societies we need to build, and the types of changes we have to make.

We acknowledge that there are different views about this pandemic including how best to manage it and future health emergencies via science, public health policy, human rights principles, and international cooperation. We also note that the many overlapping, problems in our world continue unabated--shadow pandemics--even as this covid pandemic dominates the center stage globally: multi-dimensional poverty, protracted violence, human rights violations, gross inequalities, racism, mental ill health, environmental degradation, etc. This is the ongoing, cascading context--full of challenges and opportunities--for relentlessly pursuing sustainable development and wellbeing for all people-peoples and the planet."

--Dark Patterns--BBC Documentary, 30 minutes, aired on 16 February 2022. This podcast episode deals with the practical and psychological "tricks" for intentionally designing manipulation and exploitation into websites. Corruption is ubiquitous and "solutions" are elusive. In view of this year's GID theme, have a listen to consider how these dark practices can influence your own "choices," mental health, and overall wellbeing. And that of the public. We see this "intentional trickery" as yet another major example of the challenges for 'substantially reducing corruption in all its forms'--as per Sustainable Development Goal 16.5--including the systemic-business cultures of corruption into which we are immersed every day via the internet!

Episode description."Trying to cancel some online accounts can be a maze of searches and false hopes, multiple clicks through a puzzle of seemingly unrelated destinations. This is what has become known as a 'dark pattern'; complex web design that makes it hard for you to do something the website does not want you to do, and employs behavioural psychology to make you do things it does want you to do. It is just one of the techniques used to make us click, buy or subscribe..."

Resources
Healing Moral Injury: Reflections and Resources for Wounded Souls (March 2022) Member Care Update. “In this Update we overview moral injury--an area which is gaining increasing attention across disciplines (e.g., psychology, theology, medicine) and sectors (e.g., humanitarian, health, military). ‘Moral injury is the suffering [we] experience when we are in high stakes situations, things go wrong, and harm results that challenges our deepest moral codes and ability to trust in others or ourselves. The harm may be something we did, something we witnessed, or something that was done to us. It results in moral emotions such as shame, guilt, self-condemnation, outrage, and sorrow.’ Moral Injury--Volunteers of America” ...[The materials are] divided into three sections: definitions, descriptions, and recovery...[Have] a look at this very good and brief overview, "Moral Injury: The Effect on Mental Health and Implications for Treatment" in the The Lancet--Psychiatry (Volume 8, Issue 6, 1 June 2021, pages 453-455).” This Update is oriented towards the international Christian and health communities and is also relevant for colleagues from all backgrouunds. 

--The Ignored Pandemic (2019). Transparency International (TI). “Universal health coverage, meaning that all individuals and communities can access essential quality health services without suffering financial hardship, has become the top priority of the World Health Organisation. Achieving the ambitious goal of universal health coverage will require more resources, and the better use of existing resources. At the same time, efforts to achieve universal health coverage are being significantly undermined by widespread corruption in frontline healthcare service delivery. Corruption in the health sector kills an estimated 140,000 children a year, fuels the global rise in anti-microbial resistance, and hinders the fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Unless the most harmful forms of corruption are curbed, universal health coverage is unlikely to be achieved.”  You can access additional TI publications on corruption and health HERE

--Reinforcing the Focus on Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Accountability in National Health Policies, Strategies and Plans (2019). World Health Organization and UKaid. “The top strategic priority for the World Health Organization (WHO) is to support countries to progress towards universal health coverage. To achieve this aim, WHO supports countries to develop health policies, strategies and plans aimed at increasing access to quality health services for all, without people needing to suffer financial hardship in paying for them. Corruption causes significant losses of public money and may impede the ability of nations to make evidence-based policy choices and build consensus on the most effective approaches to transform health systems as part of the universal health coverage agenda. Corruption in the health sector has high costs both in terms of lives lost and resources wasted. Researchers estimate global average annual losses from health care fraud and error to be 6.19% of total expenditures, amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars (Gee & Button, 2015). Corruption is also a significant predictor of child mortality and other negative health outcomes. One researcher calculated that 140 000 child deaths per year are attributable to corruption, more than those caused by Ebola, cholera and rabies combined (Hanf et al., 2011) Recognizing that corruption may slow progress toward achieving universal health coverage, WHO Member States and development partners are working to prevent and control corruption (Mackey, Vian & Kohler, 2018)....”

--Corruption and Anti-Corruption in Health Care: Why do we speak so little about them?  Webinar on 13 December 2021 organised by the Faith and Public Integrity Network.  Link to watch the one hour recording of the webinar HERE.

--Perilous Medicine: The Struggle to Protect Health Care from the Violence of War (2021). Leonard Rubenstein. "Bringing together extensive research, firsthand experience, and compelling personal stories, Perilous Medicine also offers a path forward, detailing the lessons the international community needs to learn to protect people already suffering in war and those on the front lines of health care in conflict-ridden places around the world.”  

--Global Integrity Day: Courage against corruption during COVID. Faith and Public Integrity Network. This weinar on 9 June 2021 featured the work of the Association for a More Just Society-Honduras (ASJ) an also included a short overview about global Intitatives for integrity and anti-corruption. Videos/audios and the two power point presentations HERE.

--The World We Want: Actions Towards a Sustainable, Fairer, and Healthier Society. A Short-film Trilogy, produced by People’s Health Movement (PHM), supported by Prince Mahidol Award Conference, 2022 Film I.  Building Equitable Health Systems. “The first film records the voices of community health workers and health care professionals and health rights activists from across the globe, on the learning’s from the COVID pandemic for the design of healthcare systems...” Film II. Rethinking the SDGs.… in the Pandemic Aftermath…“The second film shines a spotlight on the Sustainable Development Goals - in what political economic context and what unequal power relations they arose and have continued to perpetuate...” Film III. Post-Pandemic Global Economics. Re-structure, Reform or just Re-vitalize. “The third film delves into the hegemonic, extractive and grossly unequal economic model, which prevails today...[and] underscores the need for a transformative shift...premised on fairness and justice that would ensure human survival...”

--Corruption and Mental Health: Evidence from Vietnam (May 2021). Smriti Sharma, Saurabh Singhal, and Finn Tarp. Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization. Highlights: "We examine the relationship between exposure to local corruption and mental health in rural Vietnam. Using two datasets, we find strong and consistent evidence that petty corruption is positively associated with psychological distress. Suggestive evidence that a recent anti-corruption campaign had significant positive effects on mental health. There may be substantial psychosocial and mental health benefits from efforts to reduce corruption and improve governance."

--Anticorruption in the Health Sector--Strategies for Transparency and Accountability (2010). Edited by Tara Vian, William Savedoff and Harald Mathisen. “[This book] brings practical experience to bear on anticorruption approaches tailored specifically to health. The contributors, all skilled practitioners, address the consequences of different types of corruption and show how agencies can more effectively address these challenges as an integral part of their development work. Both practitioner and classroom-friendly, this book finally addresses a neglected issue that has so much bearing on global health and governance.”

Psychological Insights on Integrity and Corruption
--Healing Moral Injury: Reflections and Resources for Wounded Souls (March 2022). Member Care Update.  One of the featured resources is "Moral Injury: The Effect on Mental Health and Implications for Treatment" (The Lancet--Psychiatry,  1 June 2021).

--Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Behaviors (2020, 3rd edition). Caroll Tavris and Elliot Aronson.  See the Table of Contents, Preface, Introduction,  and Chapter 1 in the Amazon book preview.

--Moral Disengagement​: How People Do Harm and Live with Themselves (2016). Albert Bandura.  See this short overview of Bandura's "eight mechanisms of moral disengagement."

--The Social Psychology of Good and Evil (2016,  2nd edition). Edited by Arthur Miller. See the Table of Contents, Introduction-Overview, and Index in the Amazon book preview.

--Health for Peace: Contributions from Peace Psychology. This is a 25-minute presentation by Dr. Kelly O’Donnell given during Geneva Peace Week, held at United Nations (7 November 2018). It overviews a) the field of Peace Psychology and its relevance for peace and wellbeing and b) three psychological processes that can interfere with moral health: cognitive dissonance, the bystander effect, and intractable conflicts. You can access the power point HERE and the video HERE. Note that “moral health” is a crucial part of human development and wellbeing and hence its inclusion in this year’s GID spotlight. 

--Positive Psychology--resources. “Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play.” Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Also see the related materials from the Authentic Happiness website including free self-assessments for wellbeing, character strengths-virtues, etc.