PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 1 Discussion
DQ1
Defining international or global health is important and some consider global health synonymous with public health. Select one of the following two statements:
1. Global health is public health requiring similar training and research methods.
2. Global health is a separate discipline requiring specific training and research methods.
Identify at least two arguments that support the selected statement and provide sources to support those arguments. Identify and discuss one historical event that is important in how global health is understood today and how that event supports your argument. For one of your substantive responses, identify another classmate that selected the opposite statement and provide at least one point of agreement and one point of disagreement.
DQ 2
Poverty is central to health and development in low-income and middle-income countries. State your definition of poverty prior to studying public health. Based on this definition, what would be the focus of poverty alleviation solutions? Based on the relational and spiritual definition of poverty, discuss how the focus of solutions would change to include a holistic approach. Identify an example of a health program or solution that integrates a relational definition of poverty. Watch the video on “Defining Poverty” to help in responding to this discussion question.
PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 2 Discussion
DQ1
Review the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, then evaluate the following statement by Katja Iversen, CEO of Women Deliver: “The SDGs are not a menu, they are a roadmap. We need to ask ourselves: Who can we do this with, and who does this affect?”
Discuss the difference between a roadmap and menu in reference to the SDGs and why a roadmap analogy makes more sense. In your response, reference at least two different goals between Goals 4 and 17 that are connected to health. Additionally, identify two key targets for reaching Goal 3 and why you think these are critical. Discuss two actions you could take to help make progress toward reaching the SDGs as a global society. Refer to the United Nations’ “The Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving the World” in the topic Resources.
DQ2
Visit “Global: Both Sexes, All Ages, 2016, DALYs” on the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation GBD Compare Data Visualization Hub website. Compare the primary causes of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) from countries in two different sociodemographic index levels or economic regions. Identify three social or political-economic differences that help explain the differences you observed. Discuss the utility of the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) measure as a composite measure of health. Why is the DALY helpful given the different categories of Communicable, Noncommunicable, and Injury when it comes to comparing mortality and morbidity?
PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 3 Discussion
DQ1
Controlling infectious diseases is part of public health practice. Review approaches to prevention, control, and the obstacles that low-income and middle-income countries endure. Vaccines are a critical part of health, but health care systems are impacted by globalization. Some countries do not have surveillance systems in place that allow determining need. Provide an example of how globalization has impacted South America or sub-Saharan Africa. What three pieces of advice would you give the Minister of Health in countries of South America or sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to the integration of health care and public health (i.e., vaccines)?
DQ2
Macroeconomics of a country depicts the health of the population. There have been many outbreaks and pandemics of infectious diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), H5N1 avian influenza, H1N1 swine influenza, Ebola, and COVID-19 or of noncommunicable diseases. How have these outbreaks or pandemics directly and indirectly affected national and global economies? Explain how national and international health care systems have handled the outbreak. How have they differed in their methods? In what ways have the economies and the health care systems impacted each other during these outbreaks? Provide at least three examples that depict the risk factors for disease.
PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 4 Discussion
DQ1
Diseases that disproportionately affect the poor are typically prioritized by governments and donors. Some people believe that disorders such as depression are problems of the middle class and the affluent, or represent a “medicalization of misery,” and, therefore, do not deserve a share of scarce resources. What is the evidence linking poverty with mental disorders? How might poverty interact with mental health?
DQ2
Global health initiatives are often pivotal in the advancement of human rights. When addressing global public health issues, international organizations have a responsibility to develop policies and practices that support marginalized groups’ basic human rights. Policies that affect a woman’s reproductive and sexual health can be contradictory of the basic human right if it challenges the moral imperative of creating conditions that allow women to decide freely and responsibly on the number, spacing, and timing of their children or the ethical obligation to ensure equitable access to contraceptive options and safe reproductive service. This can become increasingly more of an issue when conditions arise that affect a woman and her unborn child, such as Zika virus.
Discuss your interpretation of the right to health. Explain how policies that affect a women’s sexual and reproductive health may be impacted by the introduction of a virus. Discuss the policies that countries impacted by Zika have developed around women’s sexual and reproductive health. Do any of these policies violate a woman’s right to health? Discuss if the global public health threat of Zika is severe enough to limit sexual and reproductive rights and freedoms. Conversely, is the threat of Zika-associated fetal anomalies sufficient to change existing restrictive laws and policies?
PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 5 Discussion
DQ1
Availability, affordability, and safe and effective use are the main challenges to improving pharmaceutical access. In what ways have global health initiatives had positive and negative impacts on medicine access? Does this affect global health security? Why or why not?
DQ2
Trade has been an integral part of society since prehistoric times. It exists not only as a basis for the economy in a global market but ingrained in culture. However, trade can pose controversies in global health as health organizations try to balance sustainable community health strategies in economically and culturally diverse communities. Do you think that global health policies on trade are necessary to build community capacity and ultimately support the health of the community? Assess how a populations needs are met by discussing how trade can positively impact a community’s health. Provide two examples of goods or services as support. In contrast, discuss how trade can negatively impact a community’s health, providing support using two examples of goods or services.
PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 6 Discussion
DQ1
Discuss three of the nine Sphere Core Humanitarian Standards. Identify the one that you think is most often neglected in the case of natural disasters or humanitarian emergencies such as natural disasters, violence, war and vulnerable human settlements. Discuss characteristics of humanitarian emergencies in your response. Share a real example of how these standards were (or were not) applied in a recent humanitarian crisis.
DQ2
As the number of international migrants grows globally, the need for access to public health services continues to rise. This dilemma is causing a complex humanitarian issue to become a reality for many countries. Review the World Health Organization’s draft global action plan “Promoting the Health of Refugees and Migrants.” Discuss the roles and responsibilities of international organizations in providing health support for refugees and migrants. Compare these to the roles and responsibilities of governmental agencies. Why would a country benefit from being a member of an international organization when dealing with humanitarian crises? What role should the faith-based community fulfill when supporting the needs of the migrant community?
PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 7 Discussion
DQ1
Using the proximate determinants framework, discuss the relative impacts of one of the following reproductive health issues: contraception, breastfeeding, abortion, sexual activity and infecundity on total fertility rates in Latin America versus Africa from both a family-centered and systems-based perspective. What are the policy implications of these findings? Provide a real-world example of this issue and explain how the policy impacts the low-income population. Similarly, explain why Japan, which has a relatively low contraceptive prevalence rate, has such a low total fertility rate.
DQ2
The Ministry of Health of a lower-income country has decided to institute a national nutrition surveillance system to monitor the country’s most pressing child and maternal nutrition problems. The surveillance system should incorporate the micronutrient deficiencies that affect the population, and account for people at different life stages, socioeconomic, and geographic groups’ vulnerabilities to individual nutrient deficiencies. As a health professional working for the ministry, provide your professional summary for a selected lower middle income country, of the nutritional problems, target groups, approaches to assessment, options for routine contact in the community, and types of agencies to organize into a surveillance system to guide the ministry. Discuss ways in which single-micronutrient deficiency prevention strategies might be combined, integrated, or coordinated to achieve cost-effective control. Describe the roles of general rations, supplementary feeding programs, and therapeutic feeding programs in maintaining population nutrition.
PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 8 Discussion
DQ1
Think about the need for shelter, food, potable water, sanitation, health care, and other service provisions as a country endures a complex emergency (war, civil conflict, and political violence). What is the role of international, national, nongovernmental organizations, military, and other humanitarian actors in humanitarian aid, relief, and response? Why are commercial interests a conflict and can compromise public health? Provide an example of a complex emergency and lesson learned that has emerged in the last 10 years.
DQ2
After viewing “Poverty Inc” located in the topic Resources, discuss how responding to complex emergencies impacts one of the servant leadership principles. As a servant leader, explain the balance between capacity-building and supporting the local community. Reflecting on your responsibilities as a public health partner, how is your professional role impacted by the limitations of humanitarian aid? Discuss the line between helping and hurting the community.
PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 2 Assignment
Evaluating a Global Health Issue
Assessment Description
“The Global Burden of Disease Study” is conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and published in The Lancet journal. It captures and analyzes data on many major causes of mortality and morbidity from almost every country. The study allows researchers and practices to compare countries and also help individual countries prioritize major health issues and risk factors with available resources. Review the background of the study by exploring the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation website as well as the various Global Burden of Disease (GBD) reports found in The Lancet journal. Create a PowerPoint presentation (five to seven slides, not including your title or references slide) that addresses one of the top five causes of mortality and morbidity from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD). Select the health issue based on a specific country of interest and include the following in your presentation:
Evidence and statistics supporting it as a major health issue, such as the Disability Adjusted Life Years or other measures of mortality and morbidity. Indicate which country you selected.
Four major risk factors related to the health issue.
Potential gaps or limitations in the data.
Three social or economic opportunities to control or reduce the prevalence of this issue (reference the connection to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals).
Points of interest regarding this leading cause of mortality and morbidity related to the country you selected.
For the presentation, use Loom to create a video. Refer to the topic Resources for additional guidance on recording your presentation with Loom. To submit your video, you can either upload the video directly, embed your video into a Word document, or put the link to your video in a Word document and submit the document.
Refer to the resource, “Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations,” located in the Student Success Center, for additional guidance on completing this assignment in the appropriate style.
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 3 Assignment
Benchmark – Integrating Health Care and Public Health Systems
When considering public health and health care systems and the services they provide, it is important to think about how these systems and services are integrated. Systems thinking tools are helpful to consider the various links, feedback loops, and decision points within a system to identify opportunities for improvement and increase efficiency.
For this assignment, select a low- or middle-income country of interest and assess its health system. In a 1,000-1,250-word paper, address the following:
Apply a systems thinking tool, such as a causal diagram or process map, to identify opportunities for how gaps in public health services can be bridged through a strong health system.
Describe the major components of the health system.
Discuss core services the health system provides and who manages them (government, private sector, a mix of both, etc.).
Discuss who is responsible for paying for those services or who funds the provided services.
Conclude by explaining how the selected systems thinking tool can be applied to better address an infectious disease in the selected country.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.
Benchmark Information
This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:
MA Public Health
3.6: Apply systems thinking tools to a public health issue.
PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 4 Assignment
Social Determinants of Global Health and Health Equity Infographic
In public health, it is common and extremely useful to convey a message through a visual. The purpose of this assignment is to take what you have learned thus far on poverty, health, the burden of infectious and communicable diseases, and their impact on global health’s mortality and morbidity rates, and create a visual to represent a health issue in a lower- to middle-income country.
Part 1: Select a health issue in a lower- to middle-income country to design an infographic for the Minister of Health to help depict the definitions of the following words that can be utilized to design or incorporate in laws and policies:
Equity
Health Equity
Equality
Justice
Inequality
Gender Equity
Gender Equality
Part 2: In 250-500 words, provide a background of the health issue. In the background, discuss the cause of the selected issue. Explain why this issue should be addressed. Evaluate how social and economic inequalities impact how the health issue is addressed.
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 5 Assignment
Benchmark – Participatory Learning and Action Tools
Participatory learning and action (PLA) tools are used to engage communities in a process of shared decision-making around their strengths and assets. Action steps are often identified by the group to make social, economic, or environmental changes in their community. Select and practice one of the following participatory learning and action tools:
Community asset map
Holistic worldview analysis
Appreciative inquiry interview
Problem tree analysis (also called diagramming)
Photovoice
Guides on how to facilitate the tools are described in the community engagement and PLA resources in the topic Resources. Identify an individual or group of individuals with whom you are currently working as part of your job, service, volunteerism, or family. Review the selected tool and become familiar with the process and purpose of the tool prior to facilitating it with your selected individual or group.
In a 1,000-1,250-word essay, discuss the following:
What tool did you select and why did you select it instead of the other options?
What cultural insight did you learn based on the individual or group you selected? Include a brief description of the individual or group you engaged for this
assignment.
What challenges did you identify in facilitating the tool?
Discuss how the participants responded to the tool regarding their participation and shared decision-making. Consider how PLA tools are focused on building the
capacity of people versus projects or programs.
A Health in All Policies approach, which include economic and environmental factors, is important in addressing the interconnectedness of health factors to support holistic transformation. Discuss how this community engagement approach through such a tool is useful for assessing a Health in All Policies approach. In addition, consider how this approach is effective in reducing health disparities by addressing economic and environmental issues through community mobilization and assets. Review the website and introductory report on “Health in All Policies,” by the American Public Health Association (APHA), and “What You Need to Know About Health in All Policies,” by the World Health Organization (WHO), located in the topic Resources for additional insight.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.
Benchmark Information
This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:
MA Public Health
1.2 Assess a policy’s impact on economic and environmental sustainability and reduction of health disparities through application of the Health in All Policies approach.
PUB655 International Perspectives in Community Health
Week 7 Assignment
Benchmark – Faith-Based Organization Case Study
A faith-based organization (FBO) is an organization that has a faith or religious component as its foundation and motivation for its work. The purpose of this assignment is to assess a faith-based organization and understand how it is unique. Faith-based organizations play an important role in global health given their holistic approach to serving the whole person and community, especially among vulnerable groups. Identify an example of a faith-based global health organization or ministry. Research the institution by reviewing annual reports, websites, papers, program documents, or conducting in-person or phone interviews. The organization should be at least five years old, work in multiple countries, and have an explicit faith-based foundation. Write a 1,000-1,250-word case study on the selected organization in which you assess the following aspects of the organization:
Mission
Assess how the mission of the organization aligns with its strategies and work:
How does the mission of the organization match its strategies and activities in
serving vulnerable or low-income populations?
How does the organization integrate faith into its public health activities and
programs? Comment on how the organization balances its mission to share its
faith with its goal to improve health.
Are the values of the organization unique compared to other global health organizations?
Populations
Assess the populations served by the organization or ministry:
How does the organization or ministry identify a population or individuals to
serve?
Does the organization have specific eligibility criteria?
Funding Mechanism
Review a funding report for the organization. Assess the funding mechanism of the organization:
What are the primary sources of support for the organization?
Do the local populations being served by the organization help support the
organization (time, talents, or treasure)?
Partnerships
Assess the partnerships of the organization within public health to develop innovative and appropriate public health models:
List the organizations that the selected faith-based organization partners with.
How does the organization work or partner with other organizations, churches, or groups in the communities where the organization works? Is this effective in promoting health and environmental stewardship and reducing poverty?
Does the organization partner with governmental public health agencies?
How could the organization improve the effectiveness of its “aid” and support in the communities within which it works?
General Requirements
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.
Benchmark Information
This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:
MA of Public Health
1.3 Analyze the interrelationships between evangelization and ministry efforts and local public health initiatives within faith-based organizations in global settings.
1.5 Evaluate the effectiveness of aid, innovative public health models, and private-public partnerships in promoting health and environmental stewardship and reducing poverty in international environments.
MSN Public Health Nursing
6.5 Evaluate the effectiveness of aid, innovative public health models, and private-public partnerships in promoting health and environmental stewardship and reducing poverty in international environments.