Creating futures out of the conference: 20 years of strengthening mental health capacity in the Pacific.

Creating Futures (CF) is an independent, collaborative taskforce supported by in-kind commitments from organisations and practitioners. This paper summarises CF 2023 themes and provides an overview of 20 years of CF activities. It highlights challenges and opportunities to integrate global mental health partnerships and regional mental health projects.

Making it real: Actioning the mental health strategy with Pacific Island communities.

Objective: This paper explores the practical implications of the World Health Organization strategy of focussing on community-based mental health and wellbeing ecosystems in the context of the Pacific Island Countries. It draws on the expertise of the participants of a collaborative workshop held during the Creating Futures conference in 2023 to discuss successes, challenges, barriers, opportunities in the implementation of the framework and to examine potential future actions.

Conclusions: Some of the significant factors that make for effective and sustained community-based mental health systems include appropriate central coordination and oversight of community-based services, adequate frameworks for quality assurance, meaningful data collection and sustained long-term funding, as well as a range of workforce factors.

Effectiveness of NCD-Related Fiscal Policies: Evidence from the Pacific.

Obesity in Pacific Island countries (PICs) has hit crisis levels, and the consequent high non-communicable disease (NCD) burden is devastating for their developing economies. Nutrition transitions from traditional, plant and seafood diets to a dependence on processed foods are at the core of the obesity and NCD epidemic in PICs. Fiscal policies are widely promoted as an effective mechanism to reduce consumption of unhealthy foods and increase consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Subcutaneous administration of hydromorphone (0.2 mg/kg) provides antinociception in ferrets (Mustela putorius furo).

Objective: To evaluate antinociceptive efficacy of SC administration of hydromorphone hydrochloride and buprenorphine hydrochloride in ferrets (Mustela putorius furo).

Animals: 14 healthy adult ferrets (6 neutered males, 8 spayed females).

Methods: In a randomized, blind, controlled, complete crossover design, all 14 ferrets received a single, SC injection of hydromorphone low dose (0.

Midwakh/dokha tobacco use in the Middle East: much to learn.

Many alternative tobacco products (ATPs), such as hookahs, have grown in popularity and use beyond their locale of origin and are therefore becoming a significant global public health concern. This article provides an overview of an under-reported and understudied ATP, dokha, which is smoked in a midwakh pipe. It describes the state of tobacco control in the Arabian Gulf region where midwakh smoking appears to be most common, the history of midwakh and dokha use, and what is known about midwakh smoking from the published literature.