User:Angelica.gnlz/Rural health

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Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs)[edit]

Lack of government intervention in failing health systems has led to the need for NGOs to fill the void in many rural health care systems. NGOs create and participate in rural health projects worldwide.

Rural Health Projects[edit]

Rural health improvement projects worldwide tend to focus on finding solutions to the three basic problems associated with a rural health system. These problems center around communication, transportation of services and goods, and lack of doctors, nurses, and general staff.

Many rural health projects in poor areas that lack access to basic medical help like clinics or doctors use non-traditional methods for providing health care. Approaches like Hesperian Health Guides' book, Where There is No Doctor, and World Hope International's app, mBody Health, have been shown to increase health awareness and provide additional health resources to rural communities.

An evaluation of a community organizing, mother and infant health program called the Sure Start project in rural India showed that community organization around maternal and infant health improvement leads to actual improvement in the health of the mother. The evaluation also showed that these community based programs lead to increased use of health services by the mothers.

In the United States, the Health Resources and Services Administration funds the Rural Hospital Performance Improvement Project to improve the quality of care for hospitals with fewer than 200 beds. Eula Hall founded the Mud Creek Clinic in Grethel, Kentucky to provide free and reduced-priced healthcare to residents of Appalachia. In Indiana, St. Vincent Health implemented the Rural and Urban Access to Health to enhance access to care for under-served populations, including Hispanic migrant workers. As of December 2012, the program had facilitated more than 78,000 referrals to care and enabled the distribution of US $43.7 million worth of free or reduced-cost prescription drugs. Owing to the challenges of providing rural healthcare services worldwide, the non-profit group [Remote Area Medical] began as an effort to provide care in third-world nations but now provide services primarily in the US.

In 2002, NGOs “provided 40 percent of clinical care needs, 27 percent of hospital beds and 35 percent of outpatient services” for people in Ghana. The conditions of the Ghanaian Healthcare system was dire during the early 80s, due to a lack of supplies and trained healthcare professionals. Structural adjustment policies caused the cost of health services to rise significantly. NGOs, like Oxfam, are rebalancing the brain drain that remaining healthcare professionals feel, as well as provide human capital to provide necessary health services to the Ghanaian people.

In Ecuador, organizations such as Child Family Health Organization (CFHI) promote the implementation of medical pluralism by furthering the knowledge of traditional medicine as practiced by Indigenous peoples in a westernizing country. Medical pluralism arises as a deliberate approach to resolving the tension between urban and rural health and is manifested in the practice of integrative medicine. There are currently ongoing efforts to implement this system regionally, more particularly in the nation of Ecuador. It accomplishes the mission of raising awareness for more adequate healthcare systems by immersing participants (including health care practitioners and student volunteers) in programs, both in-person and virtually, that are rooted in community involvement and provide glimpses into the healthcare systems present in vastly distinct areas of the nation. Research examines the role of NGOs in facilitating spaces or "arenas" for spotlighting the importance of traditional medicine and medical pluralism; such "arenas" facilitate a necessary medical dialogue about healthcare and provides a space to hear the voices of marginalized communities . CFHI's efforts are supporting Ecuador's implementation of an integrated system that includes alternative medicine . The process of doing so is, however, challenged by four main obstacles. These four obstacles include “organizational culture”, “financial viability”, “patient experience and physical space” and, lastly, “credentialing” . The obstacles continue to challenge the ongoing work of CFHI and other NGO's as they aim to establish a healthcare system that represents the ethnic diversity of the nation.

In Peru, the presence of certain key organizations such as USAID, PIH, and UNICEF as well as more local NGOs have greatly spearheaded the efforts of establishing a system suitable for the diverse populations of the country . As governments continue to function under the assumption that communities have access to the same resources and live under the same conditions and sets of exposures, their support of Westernized modes of healthcare are inadequate at meeting the varying needs communities and individuals. These systems overgeneralize the needs of the populations and perpetuate harmful cycles by believing that medical practices and procedures can apply to anyone regardless of their environment, socioeconomic status, and color of their skin, when reality proves otherwise. Such systemic failures contribute to a reliance on external NGOs to promote a more equitable healthcare system.