Leadership for Health

LFH – Promoting world-wide leadership for health

Leadership for Health (LFH) believes that with effective leadership and a collaborative approach we can achieve a reduction of human suffering globally. Many major health issues in developing countries are both preventable and treatable and although resources are limited, effective leadership, education and governmental support can optimise health outcomes.

LFH further supports the call for a complete overhaul of the approach to women’s health issues is Africa. The women of Africa continuously endure an unduly large share of the worldwide burden of disease and death. If they hope to combat this, governments must direct their attention urgently on women’s health matters as only they can implement and mobilise those initiatives required to introduce the large scale changes required.

Inspiring global health initiatives

LFH looks to establish foundations of health care provision throughout the world that will achieve high quality deliverables on a wide range of health and care programmes. A collaborative approach is seen as being the most effective way of optimising the output from limited resources.

We view the impact of local leadership as being the catalyst of a ground upwards approach to what is required in local communities. Our strategy is based on the fundamental view that effective leadership is having the ability to communicate a vision in a way that inspires people to take action in order to achieve the vision in an organised and managed way.

Primary objectives

One area of focus is the integration of efforts to reduce suffering across Africa and effectively combat HIV-AIDS. This includes setting priorities for education, maternal health and prevention methods. African synergy associations are a prime example of effective collaborations in the organisation of HIV treatment clinics, maternal health programs and health education in schools.

Maternal health is a specific area of need as complications during pregnancy; childbirth and the postpartum period are one of the major causes of death amongst women of child-bearing age in developing countries. Statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that every year 358,000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth. Furthermore, African women of childbearing age are particularly vulnerable to a complex range of maternal health threats including; HIV/AIDS, sexual assault; inadequate maternal healthcare; sexually transmitted disease; and unsafe abortions, all which combine to produce some of the world’s highest female mortality rates.

The health of schoolgirls and teenagers in Africa is another particular issue we focus on as the health of girls in Africa is under threat from multiple areas. Firstly, many are denied education with statistics showing that there is a direct correlation between education and the health status of girls.

Furthermore female genital mutilation is forced on some 2M young girls in Africa and this often leads to severe infection and subsequent complications in childbirth. Physical and sexual violence against young women, particularly in conflict situations is another area of concern as HIV/AIDS accounts for approximately a third of deaths amongst young women in particular age groups.

The western world

We particularly like the work undertaken by Cerebral Palsy Africa (CPA) a charity which provides training and additional resource support to organisations that are already helping children with cerebral palsy in Africa.

An important part of what they do involves a collaborative approach with the private sector, public charity and educational institutions and enables trained physiotherapists to be utilised to both provide specialist treatment and also to train local care workers in how to provide physiotherapy services to children with cerebral palsy.

The professional care providers at Health Matters Glasgow fully understand the need for these vital services and are keen to highlight and promote these important initiatives and programs. Improving the health and wellbeing of children with health problems in general but cerebral palsy in particular with its debilitating effects is a worthy goal.

Health care initiatives extend across the world including the UK and cover a variety of types including charity funded along with private and mainstream commercial organisations. This inclusive approach for the private and commercial sectors opens up interesting new perspectives for additional resource and funding options.

Moving towards a more holistic approach to health and wellbeing in general adds to the scope and reach of our initiatives and provides increased opportunities for further growth of our development programmes.