URC News

A new initiative is providing Veterans Administration (VA) Hospitals throughout the U.S. with informational resources on mental health and substance abuse for troops returning from Iraq, their families, and their healthcare providers. Launched in July 2005 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI), the project is being implemented by URC staff, Vipapan Owtrakul. As a subcontractor to Social & Health Services, Ltd. (SHS), URC manages NCADI’s outreach component and is providing technical support for the program.

The initiative was launched after Dr. Richard Suchinsky, Associate Chief Consultant for Addictive Disorders at the Department of Veterans Affairs, highlighted to NCADI the mental health and substance abuse issues faced by returning troops. The nationwide network of VA hospitals and healthcare facilities presents “an unparalleled opportunity” for NCADI and the National Mental Health Information Center (NMHIC) to reach out and make resources available,” notes Emily Glazer, URC’s NCADI Subcontract Project Director. So far, only two months after the project was launched, 68 VA facilities have agreed to place NCADI and NMHIC materials in their waiting rooms and to make training materials available to staff. In addition, the Cincinnati VA Medical Center plans to include NCADI and NMHIC 800 numbers and website information in a resource brochure that is being developed. NCADI has disseminated approximately 1,300 items to each site, for a total of 88,400 resources.

Barbara N. Turner joined URC/CHS as President on July 18, 2005, taking over from Charles Pecarro, who is retiring after 33 years of service to the twin companies.

With 35 years of government service and leadership in international health, education, and development, Ms. Turner brings both strong management and technical depth to the helm of URC/CHS.

Most recently Ms. Turner served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination, the senior career official directing the policy and $14 billion foreign assistance budget of the U.S. Agency for International Development. She has also directed USAID’s Global Bureau programs in economic growth, democracy, health, environment, and education.

Holding degrees in International Health and Public Administration, Ms. Turner played a leadership role in the development of a number of USAID initiatives to address critical health issues, including HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and child health. She has traveled extensively in the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe and brings firsthand knowledge of the complex development environment in which URC-CHS works internationally.

Ms. Turner led the team that set up USAID’s first foreign assistance programs in the former Soviet Union. She served as Director for the Balkans assistance program and oversaw USAID field operations throughout Eastern Europe.

In 1998, she was promoted to Acting Assistant Administrator for Global Programs, where she directed a staff of over 400 in supporting USAID field programs and led the development of USAID’s HIV/AIDS strategy and engagement in the Global Fund on AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Ms. Turner also served as Senior Health Advisor to the Rockefeller Foundation, where she worked closely with the World Health Organization on childhood vaccination and other health issues.

A native of the Washington, DC area, Ms. Turner is a finalist in the 2005 Career Achievement Medal awarded by the Partnership for Public Service.

URC/CHS President Barbara N. Turner was one of nine recipients selected to receive a 2005 Service to America Medal. Partnership for Public Service, a private, non-profit group which promotes strengthening of U.S. government public service, gives the awards to honor outstanding federal employees who have made significant contributions to the country. The Service to America Medal winners were recognized at a dinner and awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., which was emceed by CNN's Wolf Blitzer and attended by congressional representatives, cabinet secretaries, and corporate leaders. (See Washington Post article dated October 4, 2005). In a press release, USAID Administrator Andrew S. Natsios explained why USAID nominated Ms. Turner for this prestigious award: "No single officer in the Agency has had the impact she has had over the course of her career. [Her] distinguished career should be held up as a model for future government leaders."

In an article entitled “Health Policy Leader Joins Private Sector,” the Washington Times of August 22, 2005 spotlights the appointment of Barbara N. Turner as the new President of URC/CHS. The Times article noted that Ms. Turner’s 35 years of government service and extensive policy experience in international health, education, and development bring unique strengths to the leadership of URC/CHS.

Describing the transition from the government to the business sector, Ms. Turner noted that her new position presents an “opportunity to use a health and international background in the innovative aspect the private sector has to offer."

Ms. Turner joined URC/CHS as President on July 18, 2005, taking over from Charles Pecarro, who retired after 33 years of service to the twin companies.

A contract entitled “Romania Health Care Reform Program” was recently awarded to URC under the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Technical Assistance and Support Contract (TASC2) Global Health Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC). The 30-month project, valued at $3 million, is designed to assist Romania to reallocate resources to the primary health care (PHC) system and to strengthen and improve PHC services.

As prime contractor, URC will work in partnership with Health Strategies International, and with collaborating organizations, to provide technical assistance to the Government of Romania to implement key health system reforms. Technical assistance will be provided in the areas of health policy reform and implementation, quality assurance, pharmaceutical management and reform, and advocacy. The URC team will work to improve PHC services, strengthen the competency of PHC providers and national pharmaceutical management; and to empower citizens and policymakers to advocate for better health care.

For more information on the program in Romania, please contact Jack Galloway at jgalloway@urc-chs.com.

A website located at www.mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs/katrina provides disaster assistance information to people affected by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and to the organizations performing relief efforts. Launched by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI), the site was developed by URC in partnership with NCADI prime contractor Social & Health Services, Ltd. (SHS).

Available in English and in Spanish, the website provides information on availability of services within the affected areas and includes links to federal, state, and local agencies and to organizations providing relief to people in storm-damaged areas. Also provided are links to National Mental Health Information Center (NMHIC) informational resources on managing stress and anxiety and coping with disaster.

URC has donated $9,000, with a corporate contribution matching $4,500 contributed by URC/CHS employees, to the American Red Cross to support their efforts to provide relief to the many families suffering in the Gulf Coast devastation. URC President Barbara Turner noted that “as a professional services company dedicated to improvements in health, education, and social services in the U.S. and overseas, URC knows the challenges of delivering services in complex settings.

URC will expand its work in Namibia to put in place safe injection and safe sharps waste management standards under a four-year extension awarded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project, originally granted for 11 months under the Global Health Bureau Technical Assistance Support Contract 2 (TASC2), is now funded through September 30, 2009, under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The goals of the PEPFAR initiative are to reach two million people with anti-retroviral therapy (ART), prevent seven million infections, and provide care and support for ten million HIV-infected individuals, orphans, and vulnerable children.

The Namibia Safe Injection Project focuses on improving medical injection practices among health care providers as well as on reducing demand for unnecessary medical injections among communities. To achieve these objectives, key areas of work for the project include infection prevention and control policy and practice, skills development, advocacy, behavior change, and waste management. Interventions are intended to prevent the inadvertent spread of HIV and other blood borne pathogens among health workers and patients by decreasing needle stick injuries as well as by ensuring effective post-exposure prophylaxis when needle sticks do occur.

The URC team began work in Namibia in February 2004, assisting the Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) to conduct a national rapid assessment of current injection practices and then develop safe injection and sharps disposal models to address specific operational problems detected. The improved models were then piloted in 49 facilities in five of the country’s 13 regions. Training in infection safety and medical waste management was provided to some 355 health workers who were also engaged in making local changes in clinical procedures and in the management of injection supplies. Facility teams began monitoring their compliance with injection safety practices through periodic mini-assessments and reporting these data to the MoHSS.

In the first six months of monitoring, the pilot facilities have experienced a sharp drop in needle stick injuries from 46/1000 health workers in the fourth quarter of 2004 to 14/1000 health workers in the first quarter of 2005 and a concurrent increase in the percentage of health facilities complying with safe injection standards from 63% to 85%.

Based on the pilot experiences, URC collaborated with the MoHSS and other stakeholders to develop national waste management and infection control policies and post-exposure prophylaxis guidelines that will now be scaled up nationwide and encompass both public and private healthcare providers. The project will first expand the improved practices to all facilities in the five initial regions, including private healthcare facilities and also begin the spread to 3 new regions (Caprivi, Kavango, and Kunene) in the second quarter of 2005.

For more information on the Namibia Safe Infection Project, contact Katie Breese, Program Coordinator, at kbreese@urc-chs.com.

In 1965, Dr. Jacob R. Fishman, a psychiatrist; Arnold Trebach, an attorney; and Dr. Hyman H. Frankel, a sociologist and educator, joined as a team to apply their experience in academia and government to develop advanced concepts of human services delivery. To put their ideas into practice, they established University Research Corporation (URC) as an organization specializing in professional training and research services.

URC’s founders envisioned that the company would work in the criminal justice field and in training people for careers in human services. Little did they realize at the time that their vision would expand significantly and result in 40 years of service to the world.

Today, URC works with donor agencies, governments, and non-governmental institutions in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe to strengthen the delivery and management of health and population services. From the design of quality assurance systems to managing field-based projects, URC strives to help middle-income and developing nations bring improved services to people in need.

In the United States, URC is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the American people by addressing health and related social problems. Using communications and social marketing strategies, URC works with clients to promote changes in individual behavior and community environments, including national health education and promotion programs addressing obesity and substance abuse. The company also supports national and local efforts to improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged groups.

URC’s first major contract was with the Department of Labor’s Office of Economic Opportunity to administer the Scheuer New Careers Technical Assistance Program—a training, curriculum, and program development services project. Other contracts followed and within three years of its founding, the company had tripled in size and established offices in seven U.S. cities.

In 1968, the company’s founders created the Center for Human Services (CHS), the non-profit affiliate of URC, and positioned it to take advantage of the many grants being offered by the U.S. Government to address the country’s most serious social problems. Some of the early issues were juvenile delinquency, violence in schools, discrimination in the workplace, and drug abuse.

URC-CHS has continued to expand in scope and size, but has always remained committed to making a difference in people’s lives by providing high quality, innovative, and research-based technical support to human service organizations.

During 2005, URC commemorates its beginnings, celebrates the accomplishments of the first 40 years, and looks forward to the challenges and successes yet to come.

April 7, 2005 marks World Health Day, the event the World Health Organization (WHO) uses to highlight international public health concerns. This year, WHO has selected as the World Health Day theme, “Make Every Mother and Child Count,” to call attention to the fact that in many countries, death rates among women and young children are still unacceptably high and reflect a lack of priority given by governments and the international community to maternal and child health.

This year, WHO seeks to turn worldwide attention to the Millennium Development Goals of reducing maternal deaths by three-quarters and child mortality by two-thirds by 2015, Each year, more than 500,000 women die from pregnancy-related causes, and nearly 11 million children die before they reach age 5, with the vast majority of these deaths occuring in developing countries. Many deaths could be prevented if proven health interventions were more widely available.

URC’s research evidence and country experiences have demonstrated that the key to reducing maternal mortality lies in effectively managing pregnancy-related complications, increasing access to skilled care at birth, and increasing awareness of the danger signs of obstetrical complications among families and communities. Similarly, many child deaths could be averted through timely delivery of basic health services that meet evidence-based quality standards. In countries throughout the world, URC’s international projects are working to operationalize and institutionalize quality essential obstetric and child health care service delivery systems:

As the international public health community recognizes World TB Day 2005, countries around the world face a massive challenge in defeating the TB epidemic at the global, regional, national, and community levels. A curable disease, TB kills some 2 million people each year due to health system failures to reach those infected, especially those with weakened immune systems. TB is the single leading killer of people with AIDS, accounting for at least 11% and possibly as many as 50% of all AIDS deaths. Worldwide, 14 million people are co-infected with TB and HIV, and 70% of these individuals live in Africa.

Internationally, governments have pledged to detect 70% of all infectious TB cases and cure 85% of those cases by the end of 2005. Yet to reach these ambitious targets, concerted efforts are urgently needed to implement DOTS, the WHO-recommended strategy for directly observed TB treatment.

This year, the Stop TB Partnership and the World Health Organization are focusing attention on the central role of frontline TB care providers in the fight against TB, noting that they are the often unsung heroes in treating the more than 3 million TB patients now receiving DOTS. Such recognition comes when the international healthcare workforce is in crisis, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, signaling the need for renewed efforts to find innovative ways to support these caregivers.

As a STOP TB coalition partner, URC is assisting several high-burden countries to expand quality TB services and support frontline health workers in improving care:

In South Africa, URC is assisting the National TB Control Program to strengthen information systems, supervision, and program management at the national level and working with the provincial, district, municipal, and community levels to strengthen local capacity to detect, treat, and prevent TB. Particular emphasis is being placed on developing community-based strategies to identify undetected cases, ensure early referrals for screening and treatment, and support treatment adherence, and on integrating TB treatment with HIV and other health services.

Through the Quality Assurance Project, URC recently conducted a situational analysis of TB/HIV co-infection prevalence in the Russian Federation and current service delivery practices that impact on co-infection. URC is working with the Departments of Health in four Oblasts to develop and implement a continuum of care model for TB/HIV co-infected patients

Integrating private and NGO providers in delivering quality TB services in a crucial strategy for expanding TB services in high burden countries. In Bangladesh and Cambodia URC has documented quality of care deficiencies in existing private sector TB services and is advising the National TB Control Programs to develop strategies for enhancing access to and quality of TB services through public, private, and NGO clinics.

URC also supports training health providers and program managers in TB case management and quality improvement. URC’s award-winning computer-based training application for TB Case Management in developing country settings, the TB Case Management CD-R OM provides self-paced training for health workers in all aspects of preventing, diagnosing, and treating TB by using WHO's DOTS approach. URC has conducted training workshops on quality improvement in TB service delivery and patient adherence at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (IUATLD) annual conference and will repeat the course at the 2005 meeting in October.

For more information on URC's work to fight the spread of TB, contact Dr. Neeraj Kak at nkak@urc-chs.com.

URC’s staff in Russia recently relocated to new quarters in Moscow and celebrated by inviting colleagues to an open house. Irina Kriukova, URC’s staff translator, told us about it:

The staff of URC’s Quality Assurance Project (QAP) in Russia on November 18, 2004 welcomed partners and colleagues to an "office warming" to celebrate the opening of their new location in downtown Moscow between the world famous Old and New Arbat Streets. Attending were colleagues from the U.S. Agency for International Development; American International Health Alliance (AIHA); John Snow, International; Healthy Russia 2020 (a partnership led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs); the World Health Organization’s “3x5” Initiative; and the Central Public Health Research Institute. Also among the guests were a former minister of health and health professionals from the Tver and Tula Oblasts who were instrumental to the successful pilot and scale-up of improved systems of care for neonatal respiratory distress, pregnancy-induced hypertension, and arterial hypertension.

The new office is well appointed and even boasts a small kitchen in which staff can sometimes engage in the Russian tradition of discussing business or personal matters over the kitchen table. In Russia, the kitchen is not only a place to cook and eat—it serves as the heart of the home—a place for family and friends to gather and discuss politics or sports or to engage in some friendly neighborhood gossip

URC’s Moscow staff numbers seven full-time employees: Dr. Victor Boguslavsky, Country Director; Kim Ethier, Country Manager and QA Specialist; Quality Assurance Advisors Olga Chernobrovkina and Andrei Ilchenko; Natalia Sourova, Program Coordinator; Ekaterina Loginova, Head Accountant; and, me, Irina Kriukova, Translator. In October 2004, Dr. Rashad Massoud ended six years of service as QAP’s Russia Country Director and handed the reins over to Victor.

Guests and staff took the opportunity to bid farewell to Rashad and to formally welcome Victor as Russia’s QAP Country Director. Raising a glass to toast Rashad, Victor pointed out that the high standard of excellence set and reached since the program’s inception would continue to serve as a goal for the project. In an emotional moment for those present, Rashad admitted to being moved by the outpouring of kind words and warm feelings. He promised to continue to provide his full support to URC’s efforts to making “health care better for millions of people around the globe”.

The guests were treated to a luncheon of caviar, salmon, and Russian salads, and all agreed that the food was good and the ambiance (if not the weather), warm. Just as the party drew to a close and the guests started to leave, the first snowfall of the year began to blanket Moscow.

In Russia, URC is collaborating with AIHA to design a model comprehensive system of care, treatment, and support for HIV-infected and AIDS patients. The system will be implemented in Samara, Saratov, and Orenburg Oblasts and in St. Petersburg City, with plans to spread the improved model of care to other territories in the Russian Federation.

For more on URC’s work in Russia, please contact Katya Kuznetsova, Project Coordinator at kkuznetsova@urc-chs.com or Dr. Victor Boguslavsky, URC Country Director, at vboguslavsky@urc-chs.com.