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Tag Archives: human development

Wealth Inequality in America

October 22, 2013
Human Development, Listen, Videos
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A simple but powerful video outlining the truths about the distribution of wealth in the United States. One can only wonder that if conditions are this bad in a “developed”, industrialized nation, how much worse could it be in other resource-poor settings with even larger poverty gaps.

Surely such skewed distributions will infiltrate and impact everyday life–especially for those at the tail-end of poverty, who lack resources for food, clothing and access to medicines. Clearly, this is a challenge faced by every nation in some form, regardless of GDP, and reaching that ‘ideal’ will prove to be an international dilemma that we must all tackle together.

[pahr-tis-uh-pey-shuhn]

February 26, 2013
Global Health, Human Development, Live
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1. Collaboration: decision making; identifying problems; formulating alternative planning activities

2. Execution: implementation; in carrying out activities; managing and operating programs/events/projects

3. Equality: economic, social, political or other benefits individually or collectively

4. Evaluation: feedback; making adjustments; partaking in efforts of growth and change

Remember in school how they always used to tell us to be “active listeners,” that we had to be “engaged” and open to learning. Participating in class extended beyond doing the bare minimum of facing forward, answering a question when called on, or doing your homework; it was a creative process—participation was taking an active role in shaping and forming the life of the class room by contributing your knowledge and opinions to the collective mind of the class.

If this is the case, then why is that we cannot uphold the same standards globally in the context of developing countries? We western first-worlders see ourselves as proctors to peoples and nations that are “less fortunate” or who seem to have gotten stuck between the cracks of modernization. With global networking—and no doubt, marketing—we are becoming more unified in our efforts to aid one another into a state of development. Now, the level of interconnectivity we have reached makes it so that the weakness of any one node is no longer isolated, but can drastically affect the progress of several other nodes that share ties with it.

Yet still, even with all our efforts of crusade, all the cash we have guzzled into Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America, these countries seem in no better conditions than they were decades ago—in fact, many of the inhabiting countries are progressively doing worse. In modern day we are allegedly in the hindsight of the failure that ensue neoliberal international policie, which attempt to completely re-route the structures of developing nations to resemble those of the modern west, using capital finance as incentive. Although, the rather recent example of the United States denying aid to Haiti—ravaged by a devastating earthquake and an outbreak of Cholera—until the country had agreed to the adoption of “necessary democratic legislation” would argue that we have escaped this modern colonial mindset.

Change cannot happen over night.

And, if change is to occur, it absolutely must come from the ground-up. Only through grass-roots movements can we work together to create sustainable structures and policies that are unique to each country, population and environment. Furthermore, our role as foreign aid, is to help in whichever way we can to allow the voices on the ground be heard up in the heavens. Participation, in its full capacity (see definition above), must manifest at the lowest tier—the poor; the sick; the hungry; the victimized; the gendered; the voiceless—and recognized (inter)nationally in order for true success to occur.

Chronic Disease Modules

August 25, 2011
Global Health, Human Development, Learn, Public Health
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Early this week, I was given my official assignment to complete over the course of my next three months here in Bangladesh:

I will be collaborating with the Public Health Science Department here at ICDDR, B in order to design community health modules for chronic disease patients, which are to be implemented at the Centre for Control of Chronic Disease in Bangladesh (CCCDB). The modules are essentially workshops that will help educate patients on the features, risks and management of chronic diseases, namely: Diabetes, Hypertension (High Blood Pressure) and Cardiovascular Diseases.

I am really excited about it, and more than ready to take on the challenge!

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Below I have posted a brief introduction and proposal I have written up for the project:

According to reports published by the World Health Organization, chronic diseases, or non-communicable diseases, make up the world’s number-one killer, accounting for 60% of all deaths globally—80% of which occur in low and middle-income countries (1). Chronic non-communicable diseases are most often characterized as having “multiple risk factors, a long latency period, a prolonged course of illness, functional impairment or disability, and in most cases, the unlikelihood of cure,” which makes for complex medical cases (2). As such, these types of illness require a different approach to treatment—one that integrates economic, social and political sectors in order to build a framework of support through the illness. There is no procedure to do the trick; a change in lifestyle is required to maintain health.

In Bangladesh, a low-income country residing in the Indian Subcontinent, rising trends in the number of chronic disease diagnoses have been observed, particularly in rural parts of the country where there is limited access to proper healthcare facilities and treatment. Among these emerging disease, the most prevalent are diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease (3). In response to this epidemic, several organizations, such as CCCDRB, BRAC and the Hope Foundation have erected health clinics with the help of trained volunteer staff, where individuals can receive basic health services, as well as diagnostic tests such as blood sugar and blood pressure testing.

While a significant amount of patient data has been accrued, and the numbers of uncovered chronic disease diagnoses continue to increase, research indicates that there is a gap in the translation of data and research into practices that are being implemented into the community. In order to effectively tackle the threats to health posed by non-communicable disease, it is essential that sustainable health programs are put into effect in order to educate the people on general health and maintenance of chronic disease.

It has been noted by Glasgow and Emmons that health education and health programs must reach some threshold of intensity in order to achieve success; however, programs of too rigorous a design are likely to be unsustainable, as “few practice settings will have the resources of staff expertise required, and a relatively small and unrepresentative proportion of patients are likely to volunteer” (4). Instead, “minimal intensity” programs that are frequent and low cost may provide a better solution, especially taking into consideration low-income populations with limited educational opportunity and a lack of access to healthcare in general. The proposed modules are an attempt at designing a low cost, minimal-threshold health regimen that can be used by volunteer health workers in Bangladesh. The program will be designed to promote group activity and learning in order to better understand the nature of chronic illness, and work as a team to formulate a plan for behavioral changes based on the “5A” model (4):

  1. Asses: Determine beliefs, behavior and knowledge
  2. Advise: Provide specific information about health risk and benefits of change
  3. Agree: Collaboratively set goals on the basis of patients’ interests and confidence in their ability to change behavior
  4. Assist: Indentify personal barriers, strategies, problem-solving techniques and social/environmental support
  5. Arrange: Specify a plan for follow-up (phone calls, visits, (e)mail, etc.)

These volunteer-run health centers have great potential to become a source of health education for the community, promoting healthful self-regulating behaviors for individuals suffering from chronic diseases.

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WORKS CITED

(1) – World Health Organization. 2008-2013 Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (2008).

(2) – National Public Health Partnership. Preventing Chronic Diseases: A Strategic Framework. Rep. 2001.

(3) – International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. “Diabetes: The Emerging Epidemic in Bangladesh.” ICDDR,B Annual Report (2008): 7-10.

(4) – Glasgow, Russell E., and Karen M. Emmons. “How Can We Increase Translation of Research into Practice? Types of Evidence Needed.” Annual Review of Public Health 28.1 (2007): 413-33.