Talk:Health in Haiti

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Tangelor142. Peer reviewers: Tangelor142.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 23:12, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Thoughts/Suggestions on Article
Hello! I am a student at Rice University and am currently a member of a class on Poverty, Gender, and Human Capabilities. One of our assignments is to produce a Wikipedia contribution. I will be creating a new entry on structural violence in Haiti and I would like to make a few comments and suggestions on the “Health in Haiti” page.

I thought it was really good that this page mentioned structural violence as an explanation for the troubling distribution of healthcare in Haiti. For the amount of academic literature and discourse, structural violence is a severely neglected explanation for health differentials within Wikipedia, thus I think a good job was done to pinpoint that “racism, pollution, poverty, and overall social inequity” – all components of structural violence – prevent for adequate healthcare.

On this, I feel that one way this page can be strengthened is to provide details that elaborate on which pockets of the Haitian population are most affected by structural violence. While the Haitian people as a whole are impacted by structural violence, specific pockets of the population might experience more of its impacts, or are specifically targeted. For instance, something that could be added to the section about “Maternal and Child Healthcare” could be that in addition to high costs—user fees, transportation tickets, lost work time—other utilization barriers might be in play. For example, despite the existence of these clinics, women often do not utilize formal healthcare resources due to the fact that they are uncomfortable or intimidated by them. Some of the main reasons for this discomfort or intimidation are social and cultural factors that range from  stigma, reluctance to expose personal details to medical and governmental entities, and regulation by their husbands and families. In many developing settings like Haiti, facility-based women’s healthcare is delivered in a very specified approach—there are separate rooms and waiting lines for routine care, family planning care, and even HIV testing. Having to publically wait in these lines not only increases the time of the visit and reduces efficiency, but it also creates great stigma.

Another suggestion I have for this article on Health in Haiti is to offer examples of how some clinics in Haiti have tried to address structural violence. For example, to address the above utilization barriers of stigma and time efficiency, some clinics have merged all of these topics into one visit, whereby family planning, HIV testing, etc. is addressed at each visit, regardless of the purpose of the visit. Additionally in a quest to address structural violence, some healthcare facilities have also recruited, trained, and employed local women to be health agents for their communities. Such women are termed CHWs or Community Health Workers. Most of these CHWs are in fact women, which helps to address structural violence because it provides rural village women with paying jobs, which thereby improves the status of women and improves healthcare in rural and sometimes inaccessible villages.

Lastly, as a side note, while mental health and maternal and child healthcare are valid topics, I also recommend exploring the presence of tuberculosis, cholera, HIV and malaria within Haiti and how structural violence plays into the emerging trend of drug resistant strands of these diseases. The impacts of diseases in Haiti are well studied within the field of medical anthropology.

I will be creating a new entry on structural violence in Haiti and would just like to share a bit on the outline that I have on describing the topic of structural violence in Haiti. For my article, I will begin with a definition of “Structural Violence” and its relevance in Haiti. I will then elaborate on how different factors, specifically gender, race (ethnicity), and socioeconomic status, negatively influence the level of structural marginalization. I will then move on to cover some of the major impacts of Structural Violence. Currently, I have identified four major impacts: Poverty, Education, Access to Healthcare, and Health Outcomes. Immediately following impacts, I will cover the factors that have resulted in Structural Violence in Haiti. Following a description of the causes, I will then end with a discussion on some of the measures that are currently being taken to address Structural Violence.

If you have any thoughts on my comments/suggestions in regards to the “Health in Haiti” article or any feedback on my above outline for my new page, Structural Violence in Haiti, please feel free to drop me a message! Thanks!

Sarah.heberlig (talk) 05:56, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Plans to write a more in depth article about child & maternal care in Haiti!
Hi! I, too, am now a current student at Rice University enrolled in a class called Poverty, Justice, & Human Capabilities. One of our semester's projects is to create or edit a Wikipedia article regarding anything that we are passionate about and that is relevant. I have visited Haiti twice, and after talking to many people in the local community and people at my school about it, I have many thoughts about the systems there and was also utterly shocked at the lack of women's healthcare access. I see that this article has a child & maternal health page, but I would like to create a new section or page with more details about this. There are some diseases like cervical cancer that are extremely prevalent and missing, and it does not accurately talk about barriers such as cost, stigma, and pure knowledge of getting to clinics or areas for help and check ups (barriers are both logistical and social). I’d like to go more in depth about contraception and about the barrier of menstruation plus lack of resources. I think this page has a lot of great content, but I'd love to add and would also love your feedback and questions if any. If you're interested in more detail on my plans, please check out my user page! Sachi Paul (talk) 14:18, 6 September 2018 (UTC)