This phenomenal event was presented by the Student Global Health Initiative at the University of Utah Health Services and Education Building. This is a summery of the important issues and speakers I heard while attending this conference.
I hope we see more advocacy and awareness on these important issues, and can make a global change in the forefront of human rights, and cultural sensitivity when providing help.
Starting the conference was Dr. Gerald Brown director of the Utah Refugee Services of the Department of Workforce Services. Dr. Brown described the horrible circumstances most post-war refugees experience. Worldwide their are over 16 million refugees, and only 130,000 have been resettled. This means the rest of the nearly 16 million are either defused by being warehoused in countries where they have no pathway to citizenship, and no way to legitimately work. Many are stuck in substandard encampments for years. In Tanzania some refugees have spent 30 years in camps. Of the 130,000 refugees resettled annually the United States accepts 80,000 annually.
In Utah 1,100 refugees are reassigned by agencies approved through the INS. Currently 25,000 refugees reside in Salt Lake County, with a handful living in Logan. The disparities in health care, language barrier, mental health, and trauma effects are huge. Dr. Brown reminded us that if we want to see the world, all we have to do is go to an apartment complex where these groups have been forced to relocate, leave behind their former lives, professions, families, and all have suffered severely traumatic conditions to come here, and suffer the social effects that often come with being a part of an oppressed group.
The major issues facing Utah refugees are lack of mental health services to address the trauma issues, inadequate health services, dental care, HIV testing, and specialty care.
Dr. Brown and the Refuge Services office are currently looking for ways to build specialized care facilities that can operate 24-hours a day to accommodate the needs of this population. More information can be found at http://www.refugee.utah.gov or by emailing Dr. Brown at geraldbrown@utah.gov.
Second was Dr. Evan Lyon who's presentation, entitled : " Disasters and Rebuilding in Haiti" A Long View Partners in Health" showed a collaborative program that is working. Haiti is more politically stable than many countries effected by disaster, but has been financially devastated by the recent earthquakes and flooding. Much of the devastation has occurred because of unstable infrastructure in building, roads, and because of mass deforestation. Dr. Lyon's group has taken the approach of working slowly with the community by allowing the traditions, and methods of the people and government lead the process in establishing a teaching hospital and services that meet the needs of the people, respect the culture, and are sustainable in bringing technology and science to medicine in Haiti.
They are in the process of building a teaching hospital that has been coded to the standards for seismic resistant structures in California after the earthquake destroyed their main teaching hospital. They also have one of the most successful tuberculous testing and treatment programs by sending community health doctors into the villages to follow them through the course of treatment on a daily bases.
More coverage of the Global Health Conference coming.... I am an ADHD Social Midwife, it comes in stages :)
I hope we see more advocacy and awareness on these important issues, and can make a global change in the forefront of human rights, and cultural sensitivity when providing help.
Starting the conference was Dr. Gerald Brown director of the Utah Refugee Services of the Department of Workforce Services. Dr. Brown described the horrible circumstances most post-war refugees experience. Worldwide their are over 16 million refugees, and only 130,000 have been resettled. This means the rest of the nearly 16 million are either defused by being warehoused in countries where they have no pathway to citizenship, and no way to legitimately work. Many are stuck in substandard encampments for years. In Tanzania some refugees have spent 30 years in camps. Of the 130,000 refugees resettled annually the United States accepts 80,000 annually.
In Utah 1,100 refugees are reassigned by agencies approved through the INS. Currently 25,000 refugees reside in Salt Lake County, with a handful living in Logan. The disparities in health care, language barrier, mental health, and trauma effects are huge. Dr. Brown reminded us that if we want to see the world, all we have to do is go to an apartment complex where these groups have been forced to relocate, leave behind their former lives, professions, families, and all have suffered severely traumatic conditions to come here, and suffer the social effects that often come with being a part of an oppressed group.
The major issues facing Utah refugees are lack of mental health services to address the trauma issues, inadequate health services, dental care, HIV testing, and specialty care.
Dr. Brown and the Refuge Services office are currently looking for ways to build specialized care facilities that can operate 24-hours a day to accommodate the needs of this population. More information can be found at http://www.refugee.utah.gov or by emailing Dr. Brown at geraldbrown@utah.gov.
Second was Dr. Evan Lyon who's presentation, entitled : " Disasters and Rebuilding in Haiti" A Long View Partners in Health" showed a collaborative program that is working. Haiti is more politically stable than many countries effected by disaster, but has been financially devastated by the recent earthquakes and flooding. Much of the devastation has occurred because of unstable infrastructure in building, roads, and because of mass deforestation. Dr. Lyon's group has taken the approach of working slowly with the community by allowing the traditions, and methods of the people and government lead the process in establishing a teaching hospital and services that meet the needs of the people, respect the culture, and are sustainable in bringing technology and science to medicine in Haiti.
They are in the process of building a teaching hospital that has been coded to the standards for seismic resistant structures in California after the earthquake destroyed their main teaching hospital. They also have one of the most successful tuberculous testing and treatment programs by sending community health doctors into the villages to follow them through the course of treatment on a daily bases.
More coverage of the Global Health Conference coming.... I am an ADHD Social Midwife, it comes in stages :)
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