Critical Analysis of Project Piaxtla
Added on 2021-05-31
13 Pages3558 Words137 Views
|
|
|
Running head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PROJECT PIAXTLACritical analysis of project PiaxtlaName of the student:Name of the university:Author note:
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PROJECT PIAXTLA1One of the greatest risk to the society in the present day scenario is the health inequitiesand disparities prevailing across the different societal stratifications. Although, different globaland local health authorities have taken different initiatives for improving the access to health carefor different sectors of the society, there still are a plethora of barriers that restricts optimalinclusion for the socially disadvantaged groups. Researchers are of the opinion that the planningapproach of the health promotional projects often is one of the barriers affecting the success ofthe project (Chisholm 2016). Participatory planning approach has emerged as one of the most effective and functionalcommunity program planning approach with a much higher success rate do the optimalparticipatory inclusiveness. According to Craig et al. (2016), it has to be mentioned that for thecontributing factor behind the higher success rate of participatory planning approach is the factthat is a planning paradigm that involves the entire community in the process. This particularapproach to community development takes into consideration harmonizing the point of views ofall of the individuals into the planning and implementation in order to address the exact issues ofthe community and in a manner that will be most relevant and acceptable manner to themembers of the community. In case of health developmental promotional programs, the inclusiveparticipation of all individuals is very important for optimal success of the project. Hence,participatory planning approach has been considered to be very effective for health programs.This essay will attempt to explore and critically analyze project Piaxtla, a health programdeveloped on the foundation of participatory planning approach.Project Piaxtla is a primary health care program which is operated by the local villagersin the rural Mexico, near the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range in the state of Sinaloa.This program had been intended to provide primary health care to the large, coarse and scantily
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PROJECT PIAXTLA2populated region under the guidance and leadership of David Werner. As per the reports, thehealth status in the early 1960s have been alarming and child mortality rates have also beenconsiderably high; the harsh physical environment had not been the only contributor to theirdevastating health issues (Fernández Velázquez 2016). On a more elaborative note, the maincontributing factor behind the health issues and high mortality rate of the locals had been theabsolute lack of health care services, a dire need which the project had attempted to fulfil. Theprimary or immediate need that had been identified for the project had been curative careprovided to each and every individual of the community. It has to be mentioned in this contextthat the unfair distribution of lands in the Ajoya associated region and the discriminating landpolicies such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, the gap between the rich and poor inthe region continued to widen and also led to considerable violence, unemployment and fallingwages. As a result of this, the diseases of poverty dominated the area with one third of thechildren dying before attaining the age of five, and hence, the needs of the community in thevery beginning phase was identified as the need for curative care. And in this phase the needsassessment had been based on the current health status of the community and assumptions.However, with the progress of the project, the health care team that had been serving the targetcommunity became aware of a shift in the primary needs of the community (Hopwood 2015). Ithad been discovered that the one of the greatest concerns for the community had been therecurrent diseases and its aftermath. Hence, the need for preventative and promotional measuresfor warding off recurrent diseases became a predominating need of the community. And thefocus of the project shifted from delivering curative care to providing preventative and healthpromotional measures such as immunizations, personal hygiene and access to purified water andmedicines. Eventually the focus of the project shifted further to a situational analysis based needs
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PROJECT PIAXTLA3assessment and the focus shifted towards the organized action based program. Hence, the needsassessment in the beginning phase of the project had been only focused on the curative care lateron changed to a need of community rehabilitation with the help of learner-centered, discovery-based, problem solving approach to health education (King et al. 2018).In a participatory approach to the health promotion project, it is very important for theparticipants of the project to be critically analyzed. As mentioned above, the project Piaxtla hadbeen a participatory project where each and every individual of the society had been given theopportunity to contribute to the project. Village health promoters can be considered as the firstand most influential participatory group in the project and they had been trained in usingparticipatory, learning-by-doing methods in order to help them attain the skill set required totreat and manage the common illnesses that plagued the particular region. Researchers are of theopinion that in the early phases of the project these village health promoters have been thefacilitator of change in the health status of the community (Lawless et al. 2014). However,consistent with the changes in the primary health needs of the community the participants of theproject also changed with respect to organized social rehabilitation of the target community.Elaborating more, in the later phases of the project the need for a more socio-political actionoriented health program to provide preventative and promotional care delivery rather thancurative care. Here, the workshops with participants such as farmers, mothers and schoolchildren contributed to the problem solving approach to health education in the community.Three very important participatory actions taken by the common men and women acting as thekey participants with the help of Piaxtla team led by David Werner, had been the farmworkers-run maize bank, cooperative fencing program, and the women uniting against men with thedrinking issue; which had been a considerably significant issue in improving the health status
End of preview
Want to access all the pages? Upload your documents or become a member.
Related Documents