At the completion of this presentation the participant should be able to:
1.value the importance of health care in trafficked populations
2. identify physical health problems that are common to trafficked individuals
3. identify the mental health consequences of trafficking that may need to be addressed.
The global dental healthcare environment is changing rapidly in many parts of the world and much too slowly in others. These changes impact both our current dental missions efforts as well as provide insight and opportunity into ways the dental profession may continue to increase its Kingdom impact.
Learning objectives:
1) Articulate changes in the dental healthcare environment occurring in various parts of the world
2) Discuss current opportunities to further the impact believers can have through dentistry and how these opportunities can play a key role in ongoing global mission efforts.
Western missions and service agencies have frequently been unknowing victims of their own culture’s values, communication, social norms and worldview as they seek to minister to people in other cultural contexts. Sadly many well-meant ministries and community development programs have floundered due to lack of culturally appropriate design and operation. This is not only true when we cross national and language boundaries but also includes working within a western value system while crossing barriers of culture that exist even with the United States and Europe. Recently Cultural intelligence has been identified as a way to identify cultural barriers, to find the right inroads to penetrate difficult cultures. When properly employed we can design and develop programs that naturally increase the likelihood of success. In this session we will explore issues of beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors that should be considered when working outside of one’s own culture. Research with youth and ministry programs in 50 countries is used to illustrate simple applications of qualitative research to better understand the culture, norms and needs of those we seek to serve through our ministry.
Although the principles of medical and dental care are the same worldwide, the need for translation, existing local health beliefs, customs, teaching methods, and other social and political factors may present barriers which have a significant impact on the effectiveness of efforts to teach healthcare professionals cross-culturally. This session will examine several of these.
This session will compare short term mission efforts which provide direct care to patients in an area to those which provide education and advanced training to healthcare professionals, which most often have a longer term benefit both to those who are taught by these healthcare professionals and to patients needing healthcare in that area.
