28518 - HEALTH AND MULTICULTURALITY

Subject type: Optional

Coordinator: Carolina Chabrera Sanz

Trimester: First term

Credits: 5

Anthropology is first and foremost a human science, and as we saw in the first year, from this field it has much to offer to reflection and nursing practice.

Anthropology is also but a social science, highly applicable in the professional field, and a transformative science.

It is in this sense that the integration of anthropological concepts and methodologies in health professional sectors is a constantly expanding reality: teams of anthropologists and anthropologists today design projects of international cooperation and community development in the socio-health field, advising public health policies , coordinate and evaluate programs for the adaptation of national health care systems to the growing cultural diversity, advise on health promotion and education campaigns, develop epidemiological studies from qualitative methodologies, are involved in the cultural adequacy of the clinical relationship (such as in the field of cross-cultural psychiatry), in therapeutic prescriptions, in the management of care, etc.

Based on this premise, and with a vocation to complete the most theoretical or reflective facet worked in the first year, the subject "Health and multiculturalism" is presented to third-year students with the ambition of to make known the most applied, practical and professional side of the Anthropology of Health. Open a space in which -in short- you can "see" and "touch" the most operational dimension of anthropology within the field of health, making special emphasis on how it helps to focus and manage challenges at a practical level raised by cultural diversity.

At a practical level, this orientation will be based on a thematic approach to the fields of international cooperation, mental health, maternal and child health and social epidemiology, emphasizing how Medical Anthropology allows to identify problems, design interventions, evaluate results and generate critical awareness in each of them. these fields.

LO1. Identify the diversity of health practices in relation to the diversity of cultural contexts

LO2. Assess culturally appropriate strategies in the health care planning process

LO3. Incorporate culturally appropriate strategies into the health care process (culturally competent nursing interventions

LO4. Describe and analyze health-disease-care issues in an anthropological key.

LO6. Identify the socio-cultural factors that influence a person's behavior

MD1. Expository class sessions: aimed at the presentation and discussion of the central contents of the syllabus. 

MD2. Seminars: Specialized presentations, cooperative learning activities, analysis and presentation of readings, dynamization of debates, case studies. (Compulsory attendance)

MD6. Group face-to-face tutorials: Monitoring activities and formative evaluation to guide on learning concepts, skills and attitudes. Pedagogical guidelines for the improvement of cooperative and individual learning.

MD11. Self-employment: Reflective synthesis of the general contents of the subject, readings and analysis of texts, viewing of audiovisual materials, exploration of additional resources, preparation of the evaluations. 

The course will have a modular structure, consisting of a general introduction, and followed by four specific thematic modules. The organization of the contents of the subject will be fixed according to the following itinerary:

Module 1: Introduction to Applied Medical Anthropology. The module will focus on the reconstruction of the process of conceptual, social and scientific-technical evolution, which has led to the approach of Medical Anthropology and Health Sciences. This module will be presented in an introductory format, and will be the only one that will be developed through plenary sessions.

Module 2: Direct attention and interculturality. Anthropology, Cultural Diversity and Mental Health Nursing. The module will approach the reality of CSM's (Mental Health Centers), paying special attention to how psychiatry, and especially Nursing, responds to the challenges of cultural diversity in the field of Mental Health.

Module 3: International health, cooperation and interculturality. Contributions of anthropology to the implementation of socio-sanitary interventions for development. Work based on real cases implemented by NGOs in Latin American and African countries, with special emphasis on interventions in the field of health of refugee populations from the Middle East

Module 4: Critical Medical Anthropology. Approach to the uses of medical anthropology for the observation and critical analysis of the economic, political and socio-cultural processes organized around the health-disease-care process. More specifically, the module will invite reflection on the so-called “medicalization process” through the analysis of current cases.

Module 5: Sexual and reproductive health. Contributions of medical anthropology to the critical analysis of hegemonic systems of representation in the field of reproductive health, as well as the main care models derived from them. Approach to new discursivities and care practices: birthing houses. 

As specified in the training activities section, the subject will combine different formats. However, there will be a clear predominance of the seminar format. At the same time, each thematic module will conclude with the visit of professionals from the different areas covered, ensuring the connection of the contents with the professional reality.

Once the course is over, the idea is that students will be visited by Mental Health Nursing professionals, qualitative researchers in the field of public health, midwives, and international cooperators in programs. of socio-health development operating in areas of significant interculturality.

The assessment system is designed with the intention of stimulating a progressive assimilation of learning objectives. The combination of different assessment activities will encourage the acquisition of formal and reflective skills, as well as an integrated view of the contents and practices proposed throughout the course.

The evaluation criteria of the different activities will be presented in the first class and will be posted in the virtual classroom of the ESCS where they can always be consulted by students in favor of clarity and transparency.

In any case, the relationship between assessable activities, percentage of weighted score and assessed competencies is specified under the following formula:

Component A. SE1: Invigoration of seminars (10%) 

Component B. SE2: Seminar reports. Continuous Assessment System (70%) 

Component C. SE3: Presentation of the final synthesis session (20%) 

Conditions for averaging: Obtain a grade equal to or higher than 5 in the evaluation components A, B and C, and have attended the four compulsory seminars and the final synthesis session

In case of not meeting the criteria to pass the subject in the ordinary announcement, will have to recover the components suspended with delivery limit in the date fixed to such effect in the official calendar of the course

Alarcón, AM. (2003) “Intercultural Health: elements for the construction of its conceptual bases”. Rev.Médica Chile, vol.131, pp.1061-1065.

Comelles; Martorell; Bernal (eds.) (2009) Nursing and anthropology. Sufferings, caregivers and care. Icaria, Barcelona.

United Nations General Assembly. (sf). Human rights-based approach to abuse and violence against women in reproductive health services, with special emphasis on childbirth care and obstetric violence. Available at https://undocs.org/es/A/74/137

Johannisson, K. (2006) The signs. The doctor and the art of body reading. Melusina, Spain.

Martínez Hernáez. Angel. Anthropology versus psychiatry: the symptom and its interpretations. Rev. Assoc. Esp. Neuropsiq., 1998, vol. XVIII, n.º 68, pp. 645-659.

Bourdin, Marie-Jo. (2013). "The approach of medical-clinical anthropology in the relationship of help in an intercultural context." Social education. Journal of Socioeducational Intervention, 54, p. 61-67

Roosta, Manigeh (2013) Maternal Health in contexts of interculturality. La Paz: Plural Editores

Evangelidou, Stella; Colazos, Paco; Qureshi, Adil. (2016) Brief Guide on Mental Health / Psychosocial Support for Syrian Refugees in Spain. Northern Mental Health, Vol. XIV, nº 55: 66-77.

Forcades and Vila, Teresa. (2012). The medicalization of social problems. Cuban Journal of Public Health, 38 (Suppl. 5), 803-809. (available at http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0864-34662012000500013&lng=en&tlng=en)

Casal-Moros, Norma, & Alemany-Anchel, Mª José. (2014). Symbolic violence in childbirth care, an approach from Bourdieu's perspective. Nursing Index, 23 (1-2), 61-64. https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S1132-12962014000100013

Association of Midwives at Casa de Catalunya. (2018, May 1). Home Childbirth Assistance Guide [Clinical Practice Guide]. Retrieved from http://www.llevadores.cat/docs/publicacions/Guia_PartCasa_2018.pdf

Correa Urquiza, M. (2012). Mental health: new territories of action and social listening. Profane knowledge and possible strategies. In M. Desviat, and A. Moreno, Actions of mental health in the community (pp. 885-893). Madrid: Spanish Association of Neuropsychiatry.

Fernández Juarez, Gerardo, ed. (2006) Health and interculturality in Latin America. Anthropology of health and intercultural criticism. Quito, Abya-yala.

González, E. Comelles JMª, eds. 2000 Transcultural Psychiatry. Madrid: Spanish Association of Neuropsychiatry.

Campos Bernabeu, Daniel, & Díaz-Meco Niño, Ana María. (2016). Experience in the Saharawi refugee camps, cultural perspective of health. Nursing Index, 25 (3), 194-197. Available at http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1132-12962016000200015&lng=es&tlng=en.