Change we can believe in…
by Lalith Polepeddi on November 21, 2008
The election is over, but the campaign motto lives, especially with NU Globemed.
We had a fantastic discussion about the social determinants of health. We started by talking about structural violence and how political/social/economic structure can exclude a group from resources they need and deserve.
Through our discussion, we pinpointed major problems facing the field of biosocial medicine. We agreed that medicine is not purely biological, but also can be perpetuated by social forces. How can we resolve this? One member mentioned that we must focus on repairing broken governments, for if a political structure can be rescued from corruption and instability we can make strides in ensuring healthcare.
How can we mend governments without infringing upon a country’s sovereignty? NGOs deal with this problem all the time and have developed ways to do so respectfully. But are NGOs really solving the problem? One member noted that NGOs have such a defined focus that they risk removing themselves from the overall goal of removing social barriers to health. Perhaps we could retain the big picture by integrating NGOs such that they all are working together on a different aspect of the problem. But will this work? Do we risk creating more bureaucracy by putting all NGOs together? Will an NGO infrastructure just be another form of structural violence?
One of our members put it best. He said that the lack of education is a social determinant of health. Education is a profound privilege and the lack of it exacerbates many of the problems we discussed, such as a fractured political bureaucracy. We are in a prime spot as students to learn about these problems and have discussions about strategies to resolve them. In order for us to become the Paul Farmers of tomorrow, we must educate ourselves today to help others overcome social barriers of health.
No comments.