Framing the role of Christians in global health (original) (raw)
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Christian Journal for Global Health, 2021
Background: Religiosity and spirituality are recognized determinants of health, yet many faith-based organizations do not conduct or publicly disseminate research or evaluation data to inform practice. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of establishing a collaborative to support small to medium-sized, Christian, global health organizations in producing stronger evidence regarding the practice and application of integral mission health models. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done using a digital, mixed-method (open- and closed-ended questions) survey. The survey was distributed through a convenience sample of Christian global health networks and member organizations representing over 1,000 primarily small to medium sized organizations. Information was collected regarding organizational research and evaluation publication/presentation experience, collaborative interests, evaluation and research barriers, and priorities. Results: Responses totaled 116 and...
Navigating Turbulent Religious Diversity in Global Health
Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2018
Physicians who work internationally and in culturally diverse settings will on occasion be challenged by political upheavals, riots, or other disturbances. Medical professionals who work in global health need to be aware of the tensions and challenges that people of different religions experience. This editorial reviews the philosophy of several theological leaders who grappled with issues of social justices and the importance of respectful communication and understanding across religious differences. Physicians must have training and develop expertise in global health diplomacy to function on three levels: individual, national, and international.
Christian Journal for Global Health, 2014
Relationships between faith communities and international multilateral organizations can be complicated. While there is potential for synergy between the two, different values often characterize the approach of each. The history of these relationships is illustrative. This review describes collaboration between the World Health Organization (WHO) and faith-based organizations (FBOs) in the implementation of primary health care, the role of spirituality in health, community responses to the HIV pandemic, and definitions of Quality of Life containing spiritual dimensions. However, important gaps persist in the appreciation and measurement of the contribution of faith communities to health assets on the part of governments and the WHO. FBOs can still draw from the nine points developed in the 1960s as a timetested viable agenda for current and future operations.
The Benefits of a Christian Public Health Research Collaborative
Christian Journal for Global Health, 2021
This editorial presents the idea that a Christian Global Health Research Collaborative is needed to support small-to medium-sized faith-based organizations (FBOs) as they conduct original research and disseminate their findings. This innovative group would function as a Christian public health resource and partnership service for mission organizations and leaders to expand best practices that integrate the benefits of public health practice with Christ-centered compassion. The Christian Global Health Research Collaborative would be available to work in partnership to improve health outcomes, meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, 1 engage communities, and provide discipleship through Christian focused, holistic, and sustainable methods. Based on recent research conducted on this topic, 2 the three current priorities for the Christian Global Health Research Collaborative would be to: 1) support global partners in the implementation of different research designs, 2) assist them with using appropriate evaluation and measurement tools, and 3) provide ways for them to disseminate findings so others can benefit from the information. There tends to be a lack of knowledge and understanding about research design and methodology in some FBOs, both local and international, as well as a lack of personnel and funding. 3 The need for national faithbased research networks has been identified and initiated in the past but these have been focused on a specific church network or region rather than a global exchange of research and ideas. 4 Offering collaborative services, such as health promotion programming, academic partnerships, and willing content experts, to these FBOs will help them determine the type of research to conduct,
Religion and the World Health Organization: an evolving relationship
BMJ Global Health, 2021
Much has been written about WHO. Relatively little is known, however, about the organisation's evolving relationship with health-related personal beliefs, 'faith- based organisations' (FBOs), religious leaders and religious communities ('religious actors'). This article presents findings from a 4-year research project on the 'spiritual dimension' of health and WHO conducted at the University of Zürich. Drawing on archival research in Geneva and interviews with current and former WHO staff, consultants and programme partners, we identify three stages in this relationship. Although since its founding individuals within WHO occasionally engaged with religious actors, it was not until the 1970s, when the primary healthcare strategy was developed in consultation with the Christian Medical Commission, that their concerns began to influence WHO policies. By the early 1990s, the failure to roll out primary healthcare globally was accompanied by a loss of interest in religion within WHO. With the spread of HIV/AIDS however, health-related religious beliefs were increasingly recognised in the development of a major quality of life instrument by the Division of Mental Health, and the work of a WHO expert committee on cancer pain relief and the subsequent establishment of palliative care. While the 1990s saw a cooling off of activities, in the years since, the HIV/AIDS, Ebola and COVID-19 crises have periodically brought religious actors to the attention of the organisation. This study focusses on what we suggest may be understood as a trend towards a closer association between the activities of WHO and religious actors, which has occurred in fits and starts and is marked by attempts at institutional translation and periods of forgetting and remembering.
On Faith, Health and Tensions An Overview from an inter-governmental perspective
The Heythrop Journal, 2014
Faith groups are major providers of health care and health-related services around the world. Faith-based providers of healthcare will often maintain that their approach to health is built on a holistic perspective, employs holistic approaches, and that the care extended to patients is also provided in order to offer a support system to help the family cope during the patient's illness and in their bereavement. In so doing, many faith-based and faith-inspired health care givers will reference an approach intended to address the needs of patients, their families, and their communities, which is carried out with a view of the whole of the person: body, mind and spirit; individual, familial and communal. In line with the World Health Organization's definition of palliative care, 2 faith-based or faith-inspired health care tends to be built on approaches which blend different forms of care and intervention-including the spiritual-while also seeking to make use of available community resources. Faith communities can exert powerful leverage to reduce vulnerability to ill-health, since the major world religions express a commitment to respecting the dignity of every person, regardless of age, gender, sexual identity, ethnicity, social position, or political affiliation.Areas of convergence exist, therefore, between the core values informing faithbased responses to health and the rights-based understanding of health that now dominates the health policies employed at governmental and intergovernmental level. The rights-based approach to health, as the name implies, is founded upon respect for and promotion of the fundamental human rights of persons as they are expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A rights-based approach to health would therefore seek to promote respect for persons, gender equality, informed consent, confidentiality and so on. In an article published in The Seattle Times in February 2012, Monica Harrington, Deborah Oyer and Kathy Reim write that 'nearly 18 percent of all hospitals and 20 percent of all hospital beds in health systems nationwide are owned or controlled by the Catholic Church'. 'In some isolated areas' they continue, 'the only hospitals available are Catholic-run'. This is a reality in the United States of America, a country whose total net Overseas Development Assistance disbursements (aid provided overseas) was $30.7 billion in 2012. 3 In other words, this is a donor country, not classified as least developed, underdeveloped, or poor. A growing body of evidence points to the significant role of faith communities in health delivery worldwide. It is estimated that faith-based organizations (FBOs) 4 provide an average of 30 to 40 percent of basic health care in the world. 5 This figure tends to be much higher in contexts of conflict and humanitarian emergencies (e.g., Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria) where organizations such as IMA World Health inform us that bs _bs_ banner 1070 AZZA KARAM almost 70 per cent of the basic health care can be provided by FBOs (particularly Christian ones, which
The Barefoot Guide to Mobilizing Religious Health Assets for Transformation
2012
Health, freedom and social justice cannot be separated. Anyone who loves a neighborhood, a nation or a small planet enough to work for its future, inevitably measures success by its health and well-being. How long do the neighbors live, and with what degree of freedom from the burden of illness? Do they have water, food, shelter and access to medical services? Martin Luther King, who fought and died for political rights, could say that “of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.” Health is one way to describe our capacity to be alive and to play our role as members of families and neighborhoods, indeed as citizens. But how does one choose life for the community? How do we as leaders make sure that our lives are about life and health? The journey this Barefoot Guide will take you on is a response to those questions! The connection between religion and public health is important. This is not just an opinion but a fact. For example in Africa, depending on the country, anything between 20-70% of public healthcare is delivered through religious institutions or groups. This BFG focuses on understanding and working with that reality. Religious assets for health are everywhere, they matter to a lot of people, and they can be mobilized for the health of all. It has chapters on: thinking differently about the health of the public; revisiting the history of the link between religion and public health; working with and mobilizing religious health assets; supporting the ‘leading causes of life’; understanding ‘healthworlds’ and the strengths of ‘people who come together’; boundary leadership; thinking about systems; and ‘deep accountability.’ What you are getting in this Barefoot Guide, then, is a way of understanding why we say that, and how you can use these ideas to take up the challenge of health in your own communities—whether you consider yourself especially religious or not! It is an invitation to take a journey, one whose goal is a better life for all.