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Introduction for Public - Citizens: Part 2
A complex century demands a simple tool
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The figure above should highlight that the potential scope of h2cm extends far beyond the individual as a patient and care in the 20th century. In order to prosper and sustain itself a community needs a system of exchange, for example, bartering or a currency. Increasingly though - so we are told - the world runs on information and yet there is no common framework, no universal space in which to reflect, share, debate and present outcomes. Apart from the obvious currency within finance, the other currency appears to be our verbal languages. |
This reliance on language especially English, Russian Spanish and Chinese, prompts the belief that a universal language is the panacea for our age. Despite the pressure on many languages, a universal language would help enormously, but 'language' in this sense is only part of the solution. The problem as mentioned above is much bigger. We need a language or way of representing at least the problems listed above. This means handling ideas, and how they relate to others.
In the 21st Century the global community needs tools that:
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Does h2cm possess the additional desirable properties in table 1? That is for you to decide...
If you (unfortunately) are having regular contact with healthcare professionals, you may hear them talk of the multidisciplinary team and integrated services. This is a sign of the how complex care delivery and treatments has become, and the need to seek more efficient means of making care accessible. Significantly, as the media has shown in diet and younger people, SARS, AIDs, and the threat of bio-terrorism health is also a national and international concern.
Humankind: So Integrated, Interlinked so interdependent. Health = Citizenry + Environment
Modern travel makes the world smaller for people and viruses. In the west people are feeling better by recycling their paper, plastic bottles, but what choices can they exercise in the hypermarkets? Activists contest the meaning of fair and free trade. Science and technology continue their race into the future. No time to ponder, reflect. The task to simplify, but what is left behind? The path is littered with issues and complexity. Many are left to shout: 'Hey wait! You forgot to deal with this!'
Solving problems today demands that we understand how the small things relate to the larger picture. This is essential in understanding the subtle relationships between your health, local and the global environment. The environment begs with increasing urgency for our attention. We are linked, interdependent: vulnerable.
The initial recommended dosages of pesticides may be minimal, but what happens as these dosages are concentrated in organisms along the food chain? The lack of sewage treatment and overuse of fertilizers hundreds of miles away, means that red algae blooms in the sea with deadly consequences for the marine life underneath.
Meanwhile, on dry land, politicians struggle to adapt economies that are oil dependent, imbalanced, predicated on growth. Policy makers now recognise the need to engage with people politically. Citizen re-enters common parlance. Demographic trends demand a response. An ageing population: the need to foster personal responsibility, self-help, partnership, and engagement.
Health = Citizenry + Environment
Citizenship will be crucial in health and the environment. People have left politics to the media. At a time when people should be engaged politically, they are disillusioned, disenfranchised, and disinterested. What differences can my one vote make? They will do what 'they' want anyway! They are all the same...
In school I recall general studies class, and the stifled (or not) moans associated with the coincidence of time of week and time table. The importance of general studies is sadly underestimated. A well-rounded awareness of science, politics, sociology, ethics, and culture is essential if citizens are to be active participants, rather than passive observers.
These subjects may be the preserve of others, in labs, in wigs, in lecture halls, but they should concern everyone. New Scientist is not obligatory reading after age 16, but science and technical issues should not be restricted to the Women's Institute and those who vote in national debates on matters such as genetic modification. In the UK and Europe people have shown - 'people power' - that they can make a difference.
This is a big step perhaps - but maybe this is the universal, true potential of h2cm. It is at this juncture that competency in h2cm and other tools in health and social care, translates into competency for citizenry.
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In the developing world h2cm becomes a tool to represent the activist agenda. While, in the developed nations the h2cm may actually highlight aspects of underdevelopment and inequality - unmet need. Whichever part of the global community we talking about, merely having an agenda is not enough. The must be disseminated, subjected to critique, to prosper or wither - but given its day. |
Back to you - my friend
P.S. Do not underestimate a grain of sand...
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead (1901 - 1978)
You may be asking: could h2cm work in this global arena? There is already evidence that this is possible. Brainstorming is often employed to ensure coverage of all angles and to trigger and imbue the proceedings with creativity. There are many software packages that use a diagramatic approach.
Crucially, the responsibilities of being a citizen must be supported. Scientists and public alike need an inn they can frequent and share concerns and ideas. If we are tied to science you the public must have access to lifelong education. We must grapple with, and not deftly dodge the cost to all of needs fulfilled for the few.
| The h2cm should not be restricted to health and social care. Clinical and social care governance must be the keystone of global governance. The ubiquity of information provides the scope to not only think out of the box, but in it as well? |  |
The above list includes themes of power, authority, reconciliation, empowerment. Themes that also bring us to spirituality and how this manifests itself in our lives. The figure below considers h2cm and spirituality. There are two ways to explain this. It could be that the spiritual combines all four care domains. Alternately, the spiritual lies beyond the h2cm quadrants, what we do not know. Even what we can never know - which for some people translates into faith.
The scholastic 3Rs alone are no longer sufficient to equip youngsters for the challenges that lie ahead. Visual literacy and creative, critical and reflective skills are also needed. Is there a generic model that could be taught globally, a basis for a general studies curriculum? Well of course - I believe there is.
| More than ever health, the environment and democracy are like pearls threaded on a fine cord called quality of life. If informatics can help integrate the vision and information is the clasp that unifies, what tools do we have to handle this most delicate operation? |  |
There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.
Marshall McLuhan
Canadian author, educator, & philosopher (1911 - 1980)
Thank you for your interest which is greatly appreciated.
Whether a patient, partisan, pauper,
patrician or professional, everybody needs:
help-2c-more - help-2-listen - help-2-care
Copyright © 2005 Peter Jones
Copyright
© 1998-2003 Health Career Model by Brian E Hodges.
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