Caring about the “care economy”

Sajida HCW training - "What does it feel like to be fed by someone else?"

“Care is what makes all other jobs possible, as it encompasses relationships, services and both paid and unpaid work that make lives possible,” according to a recent report by the World Economic Forum. “Individual employees can work because children, older adults and their loved ones in need of care are being cared for. If this care work did not take place, it would be virtually impossible to be employed outside the home. Not only is care indispensable for the rest of the economy to work, care work in and of itself is an untapped source of employment which is growing. Investing in care creates jobs.”

A major focus of BHP activities is education of health care workers [HCW] in Bangladesh. HCW shortage is a problem locally and globally, but an even greater problem is the shortage of educators. From our initial work to help develop the College of Nursing at IUBAT, we now focus on training of trainers. This includes developing open education resources in collaboration with Nurses International, training trainers of care aides for the elder care program at Sajida Foundation, supporting IUBAT alumni for higher education, developing a Master of Public Health program at IUBAT as a career pathway for HCW, and most recently, recruiting volunteer trainers for Sajida Foundation mental health programs.

Public Health helps make the world a better place

In Bangladesh, diabetes is a major public health concern due to high prevalence and associated conditions such as cardiovascular and kidney disease. For Master of Public Health students at IUBAT, there are many ways to think about the problem and possible approaches to reduce diabetes rates. Students examine diabetes-related data in their courses in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. They consider root cause solutions such as healthy built environments in their One Health course and in Reproductive Health they look at the impact of gestational diabetes. In the course, Social and Behavioural Sciences in Public Health, they learn how to design programs for health promotion and disease prevention.

The graphic above is from Our World in Data, a frequent reference for our MPH students. This excellent organization asks, “What do we need to know to make the world a better place?” This sums up what we are trying to achieve with our support for the MPH program itself. In this video, BHP Director John Richards discusses the aims of our involvement with the IUBAT MPH program.

Delivering health care with OfP

During a February visit to Balagram, BHP Directors John Richards and Alex Berland met with village residents to discuss their health care concerns. We learned that people with chronic illness were traveling long distances for medical care because local health care clinics were understaffed and sometimes unfriendly to poor patients. We asked OFP to explore ways to strengthen linkages with capable local GPs concerned about disadvantaged communities. We also requested OFP to arrange a specialist referral for a young woman with cerebral palsy symptoms whose family brought her to meet us. BHP funds some of the travel and accommodation costs to attend these specialist consultations as well as treatment costs for assessments and simple surgeries such as cataract repair.

The chronic illness (NCD) screening clinic is always well-attended

Our weekly chronic illness screening program continues in the clinic offices in the OIST building, using student volunteers. For three months in spring a local paramedic was also available, so he and an OIST student visited residents in their homes to screen for hyper-tension and diabetes. We used BHP health program funds to pay for the paramedic salary (about $350 CAD for  three months) and paid for a computer to maintain patient files in the clinic. We also asked OFP to improve access to good-quality health promotion videos and paid for a large-screen TV for the primary school.

If you would like to support these programs, you can donate here or for more information, please contact us.