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There is a global recognition that the homeless in different clusters are isolated social groups. They are highly susceptible to loneliness and related psycho‐physical health outcomes owing to their less supportive and fragmented social networks. The conditions are worse in the case of chronic or lifetime homelessness. Beyond this popular notion, other critical perspectives are also there. This paper attempts to analyse the differences in inter‐personal social networks between the chronic and the non‐chronic homeless groups at a railway junction in India. The data have been collected through structured and semi‐structured questionnaires from 28 homeless people (15 chronically and 13 non‐chronically homeless) of Burdwan Railway Junction – a vital railway junction of West Bengal, India. The chronically homeless group displays more supportive and compact inter‐personal networks in this study than the non‐chronic homeless group. Living in the station area for a long time, they have formed a society of their own. Barring some psychological stress and social abuse, the livelihood scenario of these people is relatively stress‐free and social networks relations are more intensive and supportive. Considering the outcomes, instead of the housing‐first approach of rehabilitation, we favour the development of community shelters with minimum basic amenities close to their present location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Due to the significant resources involved in creating HSCT programs there is a significant disparity in the availability of this treatment modality between the developed and developing countries. This manuscript details the process and the outcomes of the first HSCT program in East Africa which was started at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Materials and Methods. Information and data were collected on the processes which had been implemented for starting the HSCT program at MNH. The details of the collaborations, training, infrastructure development, and acquisition of the biomedical equipment, as well as the actual process for HSCT, as well as the outcomes of treatment are described. Observations. The project has been detailed in 4 stages for ease of description: Stage 1: Preparatory work which was performed by the Government of Tanzania, as well as the administrators and clinicians from MNH (July 2017-September 2021). Stage 2: Exploratory gap analysis by the teams from MNH and International Haematology Consortium of HCG Hospital, India (HCG-IHC) in October 2021. Stage 3: Activities for closure of gaps (November 2021). Stage 4: Stem Cell Transplantation Camps (November 2021 to March 2022). 11 peripheral blood stem cell transplants were done in two camps, November 2021 (5 patients), and February 2022 (6 patients). 10 patients underwent autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for multiple myeloma and 1 for lymphoma. The median duration of hospital stay was 19 ± 6 days. The median time for neutrophil engraftment, it was on 8.8 ± 0.8 days, and for platelet engraftment was 9.6 ± 2.4 days. Progression-free survival was 100%, and there was no mortality. Conclusion. Commonalities in the socioeconomic challenges in developing countries can be leveraged to create robust HSCT programs in other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Mental illness is a pertinent risk factor related to suicide. However, research indicates there might be underdiagnosis of mental illness in Asian suicide attempters; this phenomenon is concerning. This study explored prediction of diagnosis of mental illness in suicide attempters in Singapore using available variables. Methods. Three years of medical records related to suicide attempters (N = 462) who were admitted to the emergency department of a large teaching hospital in Singapore were subjected to analysis. Of the sample, 25% were diagnosed with mental illness; 70.6% were females and 29.4% were males; 62.6% were Chinese, 15.4% Malays, and 16.0% Indians. Their age ranged from 12 to 86 (M = 29.37, SD = 12.89). All available variables were subjected to regression analyses. Findings. The full model was significant in predicting cases with and without diagnosis of mental illness and accurately classified 79% of suicide attempters with diagnosis of mental illness. Conclusions. The findings were discussed in regard to clinical implications in diagnosis and primary prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]