Chair in Culture, Religion and Health Care Services
(in development)
The proposed Chair will focus on the social, cultural, and religious basis of health and health care services. Specifically, it will examine the cultural and religious basis for how health is defined and how health care services and programs are developed and implemented within the context of cultural and religious influences, traditions, values and beliefs. The program of research will examine specific health and health service challenges within the social and cultural context within which individuals, families, communities and populations learn health behaviors and how populations grow and develop over time. The cultural and religious influences of health systems will also be examined relative to the meaning of health and the meaning of community relationships within which health care interventions are developed and implemented. For example, HIV/AIDS treatments have struggled to reach remote populations in Africa. The stigma of seeking health care at local clinics prevents the majority of people infected with HIV from seeking care early enough to prevent the development of the AIDS complex of diseases. Thus, entire generations of people go untreated until they fall victim to the ravages of the AIDS syndrome. HIV transmission rates go unnoticed and not evaluated in the young teenage population as there are no Universal screening programs to identify young people who need medication therapies to prevent the AIDS outcome of HIV infection. Social and cultural concepts related to health will be a primary focus of this proposed Chair.
ALUMNI
