Vulnerable Citizens Research Articles

Routine outcome monitoring in social service: A cluster randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT The study examined whether routine outcome monitoring may be a tool that can help improve floating support services aimed at preventing homelessness among vulnerable citizens. We evaluated the effect of routine outcome monitoring using the Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS) in a cluster randomized controlled trial. PCOMS monitors the progress of the well-being of the client and the working alliance between the therapist and client in order to customize the treatment to the individual client. In all, 530 clients were treated by 42 support workers in the treatment group and 490 clients were treated by 38 support workers in the control group. The outcome measures included clients’ well-being, health and social relations, whether clients benefitted from the service, the duration of the service and whether the clients were at risk of being evicted from their tenancy. We found no statistical difference in outcomes between the treatment group and the control group for any of the included outcomes. It was difficult for the support workers in the floating support service to use PCOMS in every meeting with their clients, and we did not find an effect of PCOMS for the clients in the floating support service.

A mixed integer linear programming model and a basic variable neighbourhood search algorithm for the repatriation scheduling problem

Commercial flights nearly halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the second quarter of 2020. Consequently, several countries have had to schedule repatriation flights to return their citizens stranded in other countries. Flight routes and schedules are known in normal circumstances, and passengers buy seats on these flights; however, the reverse steps happen in repatriation. Passengers express their need to travel, and flights are scheduled to satisfy their requests. The problem behind this flight schedule can be called the repatriation scheduling problem (RSP), in which we need to repatriate citizens from different countries. The objective of the RSP is to return the most vulnerable citizens first. The capacity of available airplanes and quarantine locations limit the number of repatriated citizens. To address this problem, we have developed a mixed-integer linear program (MILP) to model the RSP. Moreover, we suggest a basic variable neighbourhood search (BVNS) algorithm to solve the problem. We test the BVNS algorithm by creating and solving a set of 108 RSP instances and then comparing the BVNS solutions with the exact ones. Despite allocating only 20 s to run the BVNS algorithm compared to eight hours for a commercial exact solver’s branch and bound algorithm, the BVNS algorithm could find better results than the lower bounds for 62 instances and similar values for 17 instances.

Comparing Climate Politics and Adaptation Strategies in African Cities: Challenges and Opportunities in the State-Community Divide

Residents of African municipalities exhibit a lengthy and varied history of coping with conditions of pervasive precarity and uncertainty in the context of an unevenly present state. The climate crisis compounds these challenges. Based on case studies from across the continent, this introduction to the Special Issue on the Politics of Climate Action in Africa’s Cities presents research oriented around questions of “do-it-yourself” urbanism, sustainable development, and climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts undertaken by socio-economically vulnerable citizens. It offers insight into how the urban poor respond to ongoing urban climate crises, the variable roles of an absent, ineffectual, or inattentive state, and the unequal power relations undergirding sustainability discourse and practice. It draws on a cross-regional comparative perspective that centres conversations about urban theory and development in a (urban) world succumbing to mounting pressures from climate change, environmental precarity, and pervasive inequities.

Quick Predictions of Onset Times and Rain Amounts from Monsoon Showers over Urban Built Environments

Predicting the onset times of precipitation over densely populated cities for the purposes of timely evacuation is a challenge. This paper explored a flooding event over an urban built environment in a South Asian mega city, Chennai, where extant urban planning models rely on predicted rainwater amounts for early warning and impact assessment studies. However, the time duration of flooding events is related to the nature of the urban sprawl in the built environment. Any evacuation measure is invariably tied down to the time duration over which the precipitation event occurs, and therefore to the expected time of a precipitation event to begin. In this context, a crucial parameter useful to municipal authorities is the onset time of precipitation. This study used optimised analytical formulations to predict this time, and the derived analytical expressions for the case study yielded comparable times estimated from a computer-intensive full-scale large eddy model within an accuracy of 2%. It is suggested that municipal authorities (who are non-experts in fluid mechanics) use this early prediction for the purposes of quick alerts to a congested city’s most vulnerable citizens within urban sprawls. However, for the procedure to work at its best, it involves a two-stage procedure. The first step involves the use of a parcel model to obtain the expected cloud droplet spectral spreads based on the prevailing dynamical characterisations. The second step involves an optimisation procedure involving cloud spectral properties from the first step to quantify both the auto-conversion rates and the threshold. Thereafter, an onset time calculation based on cloud properties is estimated. These new results are cast in closed form for easy incorporation into meteorological applications over a variety of urban scales. Rain mass amounts were also predicted analytically and used to configure Aeronautical Reconnaissance Coverage Geographic Information System (ARCGIS) to compute low drainage flow rates over the vulnerable parts of Chennai city. It was found that heavy precipitation over the North Chennai region yielded discharge rates to the tune of ~250 m3s−1 during a 24 h period, causing intense flooding in the low-lying areas around the Cooum River basin with a large population density, with estimates sufficiently corroborating observations.

Understanding Trustful Relationships between Community Health Workers and Vulnerable Citizens during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Realist Evaluation.

(1) Background: Community health workers (CHWs) are an essential public health workforce defined by their trustful relationships with vulnerable citizens. However, how trustful relationships are built remains unclear. This study aimed to understand how and under which circumstances CHWs are likely to build trust with their vulnerable clients during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2) Methods: We developed a program theory using a realist research design. Data were collected through focus groups and in-depth interviews with CHWs and their clients. Using a grounded theory approach, we aimed to unravel mechanisms and contextual factors that determine the trust in a CHW program offering psychosocial support to vulnerable citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. (3) Results: The trustful relationship between CHWs and their clients is rooted in three mental models: recognition, equality, and reciprocity. Five contextual factors (adopting a client-centered attitude, coordination, temporariness, and link with primary care practice (PCP)) enable the program mechanisms to work. (4) Conclusions: CHWs are a crucial public health outreach strategy for PCP and complement and enhance trust-building by primary care professionals. In the process of building trustful relationships between CHWs and clients, different mechanisms and contextual factors play a role in the trustful relationship between primary care professionals and patients. Future research should assess whether these findings also apply to a non-covid context, to the involvement of CHWs in other facets of primary healthcare (e.g., prevention campaigns, etc.), and to a low- and middle-income country (LMIC) setting. Furthermore, implementation research should elaborate on the integration of CHWs in PCP to support CHWs in developing the mental models leading to build trust with vulnerable citizens and to establish the required conditions.

Delivering Culturally Competent and Equitable Police Services Via Social Media: Assessing Two Way Dialogue between Police Agencies and Vulnerable Citizens

Social media is quickly becoming one of the most important media outlets for police departments; it provides them with the opportunity to engage in two-way dialogue with citizens. This direct line of communication can help build trust and legitimacy among racial minorities and other vulnerable groups with whom relationships are strained. However, little is known about the presence of cultural competency, legitimacy and social equity content in these exchanges. This research assesses these issues through an examination of Facebook interactive exchanges between citizens and police departments. The results reveal two key findings. First, vulnerable citizens’ comments and questions are more likely to raise concerns about agencies commitment to delivering culturally competent and socially equitable services. Next, agencies ignore, or rarely respond to, inquiries raising cultural and equity concerns. These findings highlight the need for future exploration of the use of social media accounts by police departments.

Human–AI Interactions in Public Sector Decision Making: “Automation Bias” and “Selective Adherence” to Algorithmic Advice

Abstract Artificial intelligence algorithms are increasingly adopted as decisional aides by public bodies, with the promise of overcoming biases of human decision-makers. At the same time, they may introduce new biases in the human–algorithm interaction. Drawing on psychology and public administration literatures, we investigate two key biases: overreliance on algorithmic advice even in the face of “warning signals” from other sources (automation bias), and selective adoption of algorithmic advice when this corresponds to stereotypes (selective adherence). We assess these via three experimental studies conducted in the Netherlands: In study 1 (N = 605), we test automation bias by exploring participants’ adherence to an algorithmic prediction compared to an equivalent human-expert prediction. We do not find evidence for automation bias. In study 2 (N = 904), we replicate these findings, and also test selective adherence. We find a stronger propensity for adherence when the advice is aligned with group stereotypes, with no significant differences between algorithmic and human-expert advice. In study 3 (N = 1,345), we replicate our design with a sample of civil servants. This study was conducted shortly after a major scandal involving public authorities’ reliance on an algorithm with discriminatory outcomes (the “childcare benefits scandal”). The scandal is itself illustrative of our theory and patterns diagnosed empirically in our experiment, yet in our study 3, while supporting our prior findings as to automation bias, we do not find patterns of selective adherence. We suggest this is driven by bureaucrats’ enhanced awareness of discrimination and algorithmic biases in the aftermath of the scandal. We discuss the implications of our findings for public sector decision making in the age of automation. Overall, our study speaks to potential negative effects of automation of the administrative state for already vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens.

Can Online Transparency Improve Accountability? The Case of Portuguese Private Social Solidarity Institutions

The development of the non-profit sector (NPS) in Portugal has been gaining relevance in recent times, particularly in the form of institutions whose purpose is to broaden and increase the response to the needs of the most needy and socially vulnerable citizens. The financing of Portuguese non-profit sector entities is essentially made up of income from their activity, donations and public or governmental support. Therefore, these entities face increasing pressure from their funders, users and citizens in general for a greater dissemination of good practices regarding the social impact they have on the community; in particular, they are increasingly required to be transparent in their activities. The main objective of this study was to analyse the level of accountability and transparency of the private social solidarity institutions (IPSS) of the municipality of Porto. To this end, the websites of these institutions were analysed, using a qualitative and quantitative methodology, using the application of the transparency index Enhancement of an Accountability Guide for Learning E-Government. This analysis allowed us to verify that there are still a considerable number of entities that do not have an institutional website, and those that do, have a low level of transparency.

Dilemma of health rights of vulnerable citizens: A narrative review.

Vulnerable populations have traditionally faced non-availability of health services. Enforcement of constitutional protections to vulnerable citizens is essential to secure the health rights for them. The current narrative review was planned in the perspective of laws related to health rights by reviewing and highlighting such provisions in the constitutions of different countries and the scope of the World Health Organization (WHO), and to compare them with the on-ground situation prevailing in Pakistan. The findings can invoke debate, inspire research and facilitate the recognition of the enabling provisions for healthcare guaranteed in the Constitution. Data was searched related to constitution and health affairs of countries, including Pakistan, United States, United Kingdom, China, Saudi Arabia and India, using search engines, databases and different websites. Of the 170 reports, publications and articles downloaded, 30(17.6%)full-text articles, publications and reports in English language were used for the narrative review.

Impact of COVID-19 on South Sudan: A Review on Social and Economic Management Policies from the First Wave

In December 2019, a new respiratory disease, i.e., novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged in Mainland China in Wuhan the capital of Hubei Province. It spreads through droplets produced while coughing or sneezing. Its symptoms include fever, dry cough, fatigue, sputum production, shortness of breath, sore throat, etc. In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a “Pandemic” which affected human lives and economies. South Sudan is a developing country and does not have adequate resources to overcome this pandemic (COVID-19).
 Aims: The primary objective of this article is to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the youngest country in the African continent (South Sudan) on its weak economy coupled with hyperinflation and depreciation of currency etc. and lessons learned from other countries in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
 Methodology: A review was carried out to accomplish the objective of the study by extracting data from the database of Science Direct, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Research Gate, and authentic websites for World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank, etc., studies covered major areas across the globe but more especially countries that have trade ties with South Sudan and the East African
 Results: There is a drop in South Sudan’s crude oil export which is crucial for the economy. The responsive rate to vulnerable citizens was low, inadequate policies implementations, there was massive unemployment, it has created the state of xenophobia between nationals and foreigners, online learning through the use of televisions (TVs) and radio stations has not been effective.
 Conclusion: The management of the COVID-19 pandemic call for collaboration between authorities the public, and inter-states as there is no country immune. The use of e-commerce is crucial for developing countries, which reduces social interaction between traders and consumers, reducing the chances of a complete economic shutdown. Lastly, there is also a need to establish learning infrastructures for online studies and birth control initiatives, especially for the least developed countries.

Соціальний захист дітей у міждисциплінарному підході

The article examines the concept of «social protection» in the context of an interdisciplinary phenomenon. An author has reviewed interdisciplinarity as defining the same problem in different sectoral planes, which seeks to connect these planes and create a qualitatively new one. According to the analysis of theoretical material, the impression of «social protection» has a philosophy, wherein the works of ancient thinkers, the state must protect citizens. The article also presents a brief description of the concept in sociological, political science, legal research. Research analysis has shown that «social protection» is an integral part of the state's policy, responsible for its citizens' welfare, development, and security. The author has analyzed pedagogical and socio-pedagogical research on a specific topic. She identifies social protection as a series of natural processes that depend on many external factors that constitute a protective environment social, psychological, pedagogical support, and assistance for children. The author concludes that social protection should minimize the negative impact of risk factors, social education, providing various types of social service and support, adapting behavior, and emotional state. The study also compares «social security» and «social protection». Ihnatenko K. defines social security as the activity of public authorities, local governments, public associations, and citizens to create favorable conditions (guarantees) for the lawful and consistent implementation and protection of citizens' rights. The author concludes that social protection aims to meet the basic needs of the most vulnerable citizens or citizens in difficult life circumstances or who need social protection from the state and other citizens, including children.

An undignified disaster reality for Australians with disability.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Management establish the importance of ensuring the equitable protection of human rights in disaster planning, relief, and recovery. However, internationally and within Australia, the reality is one of indignity, human rights violations, and corruption. Australia is living in a perpetual state of crisis, following 3years of environmental and health disaster events. Vulnerable Australian citizens, especially people with disability, are at a great risk of human rights violations and may have restricted access to resilience-building resources that would enable them to recover. Embedding dignity into disaster management and recovery can safeguard human rights and improve outcomes for people with disability.

Impact of Nation-Wide Lockdown on Migrant Workers in India

COVID-19 has emerged as a crisis that has impacted all spheres of human life especially, has disproportionately impacted the world's poor population in terms of livelihood and survival. In India, the pandemic also has caused a severe impact on the whole economy, especially, on the life of migrant workers and it will leave long-lasting scars on them. The authorities say the lockdown is key to saving lives, but the lack of planning has hit the country's poorest and most vulnerable citizens hard. This study examines the impact of this pandemic and the related nationwide lockdown on millions of migrant workers in India, who seem to have suffered the most during this period. Here, some of the important issues are also discussed regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the migrant population. These impacts are most troubling for low-income households, which are less well positioned to cope with earnings losses during a recession, have no alternative earnings and have no social security available. Most of these workers earn little more than a subsistence wage and have no other means to protect their incomes if they lose their jobs. In this context, this article focuses on the status of migrant workers in India amidst lockdown and strategies that may help to mitigate the situation. This article also endeavours to study the reasons due to which the lockdown in India couldn't prosper as per the prospect and the adverse impact it had on the migrant population, concretely the inter-state migrants. At the same time, it is trying to summarise some key relief measures announced by the government and directives issued by the Supreme Court for the migrant population about the lockdown. In the end, the study also explores the future course of action that can improve migrant workers’ condition, gives recommendations on how to broaden the support for migrant workers nationwide and suggests pathways for recovery and transformation, including opportunities for rural revival, inclusive welfare, and community response.

Impact of Social Protection Mechanism for Child Protection

Social protection schemes are designed to address the vulnerability of all the citizens through policy and programmes. As one of the integral agenda of the Government of Nepal, social protection programmes have covered a wide range of citizens through various schemes including cash, in-kind, and food transfers among others. Children, as the most vulnerable citizens needing support for growth, empowerment and sustenance, are the core recipients of the social protection programmes. Analysis of the current contribution of social protection programmes in child protection through the review of policy, programmes and budget allocated by the federal as well as provincial governments shows lack of compliance between the annual policy, programme and budget to shield children under social protection schemes. In addition, all the policy provisions haven’t been exclusively supported by budgetary provisions. Though significant benefits and social security allowances have been placed for children covering education, health, protection, nutrition, and development, this study shows further need of investment on children focused programmes. Similarly, it reveals that though Dalits, girls, conflict-affected, martyr’s children, children with disabilities and other most marginalised and disadvantaged are covered by the social protection programmes, a large part of the sexual and gender minority children have been excluded from these supports due to lack of awareness and accessibility to such schemes.

Necessity of Social Distancing in Pandemic Control: A Dynamic Game Theory Approach.

We model a society with two types of citizens: healthy and vulnerable individuals. While both types can be exposed to the virus and contribute to its spread, the vulnerable people tend to be more cautious as being exposed to the virus can be fatal for them due to their conditions, e.g., advanced age or prior medical conditions. We assume that both types would like to participate in in-person social activities as freely as possible and they make this decision based on the total number of infected people in the society. In this model, we assume that a local governmental authority imposes and administers social distancing regulations based on the infection status of the society and revises it accordingly in each time period. We model and solve for the steady state in four scenarios: (i) non-cooperative (Nash), (ii) cooperative, (iii) egoistic, and (iv) altruistic. The results show that the Altruistic scenario is the best among the four, i.e., the healthy citizens put the vulnerable citizens’ needs first and self-isolate more strictly which results in more flexibility for the vulnerable citizens. We use a numerical example to illustrate that the Altruistic scenario will assist with pandemic control for both healthy and vulnerable citizens in the long run. The objective of this research is not to find a way to resolve the pandemic but to optimally live in a society which has been impacted by pandemic restrictions, similar to what was experienced in 2020 with the spread of COVID-19.

COVID-19 repatriation programs — Classification and optimization models

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent measures to control the spread of the virus by border closure and suspension of commercial flights, decision-makers in several countries had to deal with one or more forms of repatriation problems, international and domestic. In addressing an international repatriation problem, a country must schedule flights to return its citizens. Typically, the flight schedules of commercial airlines are announced, and passengers buy their seats accordingly. However, in repatriation, the opposite happens: citizens express their wishes to return to their countries, and flights need to be scheduled. Due to several constraints, decision-makers should repatriate the most vulnerable citizens first. In this work, we offer an overview of repatriation problems from an optimization perspective by visiting real-life cases. We compare the Indian and Jordanian repatriation programs to find similarities and differences between the two. We also develop several mixed-integer linear programs (MILPs) to model different repatriation phases and solve respective illustrative examples to demonstrate the use of the MILPs. Last, we solve two stages of a problem that resembles Jordan’s actual repatriation program. Decision-makers and researchers may use and extend this summary and the optimization models for any future pandemic that might lead to border closures and new repatriation problems.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Quality of Life in Danish Patients with Multiple Myeloma; Results from an Ongoing Longitudinal National Survey

Background: The severe, acute respiratory syndrome, coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), leading to coronavirus-19 (COVID-19), was detected for the first time in Wuhan, China in December 2019. In general, governments and health authorities have taken precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce viral spread and protect vulnerable citizens. Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) have an increased risk of being infected with COVID-19 and developing a fatal course due to the MM-related immunodeficiency (Glenthøj, A et al. PMID: 32939853). To some extent, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed standard of care towards extended use of oral regimens and limiting hospital visits (Terpos E et al.PMID: 32444866).We aimed to investigate the quality of life (QoL) of Danish patients with MM during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesized that patients living alone and those under the age of 65 years, as a consequence of the pandemic, would experience impaired QoL due to social isolation and fear of infection with SARS-CoV-2.Methods: The Danish prospective, nation-wide, observational survey “Quality of life in Danish patients with multiple myeloma” (QoL-MM) (Nielsen LK et al. PMID: 30656677) framed our study. In QoL-MM, survey data are obtained at enrolment and subsequently at 12 follow-up time points over a two-year period. The following PRO questionnaires are used; the cancer-generic instrument of European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of life (EORTC) QLQ-C30 (EORTC QLQ-C30), the Multiple Myeloma module QLQ-MY20 (EORTC QLQ-MY20), the Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy module (EORTC QLQ-CIPN20) and the Short-form health survey version 2 (SF12v2).In the present study, a subpopulation of the QoL-MM cohort was constructed, based on the response time of the questionnaires. QoL was compared using patient-reported outcome (PRO) data obtained before and during the COVID-19 pandemic at group level.In a Danish context, first wave was defined as April to June 2020 and the second wave as November 2020 to January 2021. The QoL data were analyzed using mixed effects linear regression, with a year-period-interaction. Pre-COVID versus COVID mean domain score difference was considered evident, if the difference was both statistically significant (p-value <0.05) and clinically relevant, using minimal important difference (MID) defined as 0.3 standard deviation of the mean score.Results: The study included 616 patients (63% newly diagnosed and 37% relapsed) with a mean age of 68.2 years (standard deviation, 9.2); 40% were females; 76% were married/cohabiting, and 24% single. Questionnaire completion rates during the investigated periods were between 96% and 97%. In total, 1,685 completed sets of questionnaires were included in the analyses. The patients reported no statistically significant and clinically relevant difference in QoL during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to one year earlier, see table 1.When analyzing the subpopulations, we found that patients below 65 years reported improved physical health summaries (p-value 0.016), decreased fatigue (p-value < 0.001), less insomnia (p-value 0.002) and improved role functioning (p-value <0.001) during the first wave, reaching both statistical significance and the threshold of MID. The group of patients living alone reported improved role functioning during the first wave, reaching both statistical significance (p-value <0.001) and the threshold of MID. These findings were not evident during the second wave, see table 1.Conclusion: As a group, Danish patients with MM did not report impaired QoL during the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrary, we observed improvements in some domains in patients below 65 years. Our observations indicate that the patients with MM have felt cared for and in good hands during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, part of the reason for our finding of no negative impact on QoL by the pandemic could be that the questionnaires used were not developed to capture the impact of the pandemic on QoL.Importantly, our results suggest that QoL data collected in clinical trials during the pandemic allow interpretation without adjusting for the impact of the pandemic. [Display omitted] DisclosuresRedder: Janssen-Ciliag: Research Funding. Frederiksen: Alexion: Research Funding; Gilead: Research Funding; Abbvie: Research Funding; Janssen Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding.

Vplyv sotsialnoho zabezpechennia na minimizatsiiu sotsialnykh ryzykiv u suspilstvi

It is argued that the transition in Ukraine from the command-administrative system that existed in the Soviet period on the basis of a monopoly for power, truth and property, to the market-based model led to a radical break in all the social, spiritual and economic foundations of the public life. As a result, there was a sharp decline in social protection. It is shown that this objectively leads to an increase in social tensions in society, which potentially exacerbates social risks. It is pointed out that under such conditions there is an urgent need to «reset» the social security system, which can be viewed as a means for minimizing social risks in society. The reasons for the emergence and formation of a welfare state aimed at protecting the most vulnerable citizens are discussed. The main historical stages of the development of social security as a social phenomenon are analyzed. The positive role of Christianity in the development of charity as a form of social protection for the needy is shown. It is proven that the implementation of the principles of justice and target group orientation in the activities of social security bodies minimizes the existing social risks in society. It is shown that rural poverty and large families increase the level of social risks. Attention is drawn to the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic and the aggressive war on the part of the Russian Federation are factors that pose significant social risks. It turns out that the reform of the social security system is based on the neoliberal model of developed European states, which is not adapted to the Ukrainian reality. Therefore, the ongoing economic transformations in the state did not have an effective system of necessary precautionary mechanisms for social protection in the face of a sharp decline in the living standards of the majority of the population. It turns out that the social security system, which was established in Soviet times, could not fully become a factor in minimizing social risks in society. It is emphasized that the implementation of reforms initiated in the social sphere, first of all, needs to be modernized and updated, which will allow it to become an important factor in minimizing social risks in society.

COVID-19 Dashboard for the Lisbon Region - an advisory tool for policy

Issue/problemAt the time of arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic to Portugal, the Public Health Department of Lisbon and Tagus Valley Regional Health Administration was confronted with its obsolete information system, which could not provide the information that Public Health Authorities needed to bring the pandemic under control. In order to tackle this issue, our goal was to aggregate all the relevant epidemiological data for the region in an accessible and user-friendly dashboard.MethodsStarting from March 2020 we created a dashboard, which compiled and analyzed COVID-19 data, such as: confirmed and active cases, deaths, hospitalizations (including ICU beds), high/low risk contacts, mandatory confinements, tests, and clusters. This dashboard had anonymized data and was updated daily as well as constantly upgraded by taking into consideration new incoming data and feedback provided by users, serving its purpose as an advisory tool for policy.ResultsThe dashboard was available to Local, Regional, and National Public Health Authorities and made possible to monitor trends and predict epidemiological changes that, prior to its existence, were dispersed in several datasets. Most importantly, it allowed for a better allocation of human resources for contact tracing and case management activities, to easily identify basic social needs for the most vulnerable citizens. It also provided for policy measures adjusted to the smallest administrative division in Portugal, the parish, that ultimately allowed for a better epidemiological control in Lisbon Metropolitan Area in 2020.LessonsThe regional dashboard is far from perfect, but it highlights the constant need for robust information and epidemiological surveillance systems, serving both National, Regional and Local Public Health Authorities. It appeared out of necessity during a pandemic and it proved once more the importance of data analytics for guiding public health action based on evidence.Key messages Data analytics can serve both as an advisory tool for policy as well as to guide public health interventions.The COVID-19 Dashboard for the Lisbon Region aggregates relevant epidemiological data that helped Public Health authorities better understand and control the Pandemic in the region.

Assessing Housing First programs from a right to housing perspective

The notion that Housing First (HF) is a human-rights based approach to housing some of society’s most vulnerable citizens is often alluded to in the literature, but seldom interrogated. In this paper, we examine whether HF in Alberta, Canada is practiced in a way that realizes the right to housing for chronically homeless people. We do so using four human rights principles identified by Fukuda-Parr: non-discrimination, participation, adequate progress and remedy. Based on interviews with staff of 14 HF programs in three cities, we identify constraints to a human rights-based approach, including time-limited support, which necessitates a strong emphasis on housing sustainability. We also identify positive practices, such as client participation in decision-making and tenant rights education. The paper also provides a model for systematically assessing whether HF programs respect, protect and fulfil the right to housing.