• Support countries to strengthen the primary health care response to NCDs and mental health, improve integrated service delivery, scale up appropriate interventions, and improve surveillance for NCDs, mental health, disabilities, and substance use disorders. These efforts should take into account the Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (Document CSP28/9, Rev. 1), the Policy for Improving Mental Health (Document CSP30/9), the findings of the evaluation of PAHO’s technical cooperation in NCD prevention and control, and the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. Efforts will be made to hasten the elimination of cervical cancer.
• Strengthen integrated approaches to implementing, scaling up, and evaluating evidence-based and cost-effective interventions for NCDs, disabilities, mental health, and substance use. These should include, among others, implementation of the WHO Package of Essential Noncommunicable (PEN) interventions for primary health care and the HEARTS initiative, the strategy for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing and ablative treatment, the CureALL package for childhood cancer, and the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP), including its delivery via tele-mental health.
• Improve access to rehabilitation and habilitation services and assistive technology by utilizing country-specific measures such as the WHO Rehabilitation in Health Systems: Guide for Action and the WHO assistive technology assessments (ATA-C and rATA). This should include services for people facing long-term consequences of COVID-19.
• Improve country capacity for data collection, analysis, surveillance, and monitoring of NCDs and their risk factors, disabilities and rehabilitation, and mental health conditions (including neurological disorders and substance use disorders). PASB will also work to develop metrics to measure and assess the efficiency of its support in this area of work.