Global health minor set for fall

The proposal for a global health minor is in the process of being approved.

CSB/SJU students interested in global health have been individually pursuing this subject academically and through extracurricular activities for years. The minor will be open for enrollment in the fall semester of 2022 to students of any major who have an interest in the social and cultural dimensions of healthcare, according to Ellen Block, sociology professor and member of Global Health Steering Committee.

“Global health is the study of health and healing across cultures and across the world,” senior Grace Savard said. “It includes studying health disparities, health inequities and trying to think about the deep rooted nature of health injustice and how we can create comprehensive and sustainable solutions.”

Although the minor is not officially open yet, some students have already begun taking many of the requirements due to a personal interest in global health. The process to create this minor began because many students, especially members of the Global Health Affairs Club, expressed an interest in diving deeper into the humanistic and social science elements of healthcare.

Block said many students come into CSB/SJU with an interest in healthcare. Global health provides an opportunity for them to study health from a sociological context, in addition to, or instead of, a biomedical one.

“Whether you’re going to be a health care provider or a public health professional… you’re going to be able to do that in a more thoughtful, more cross-culturally competent way if you get the training from us that you would need to think through how different people experience health, illness and healing,” Block said.

Junior Bella Brinkman emphasized the importance of having strong relationships with patients to provide the most effective care. She said that personal contexts such as race, class, sex, gender and sexual orientation impact how people experience illness and treatment.

“Too often in healthcare we just think about biology, and we don’t think about the fact that there is a human experiencing a health-related issue. Everyone’s identity and cultural context influences their health,” Brinkman said.

The minor is not just intended for students on a preprofessional track. According to Block, there is a need for a greater awareness of global health issues in all disciplines, such as social work, international and public policy, education and more.

Savard also gave examples of how different disciplines collaborate on working toward solutions to health inequity.

“We need really awesome business people to implement sustainable health systems, and we need people interested in pre-health to think about how we diagnose and prescribe,” Savard said. “I think it calls students from every discipline to think about the whys and how’s of health in our world and how we’re going to address these issues and hopefully improve them for future generations.”

Because of the interdisciplinary nature of global health, the minor is intended for students from any major. Therefore, the faculty is also made up of experts from a variety of fields.

“Students who are passionate about global health will be learning from Hispanic studies professors, sociology professors, biology professors and history professors. It brings students together. I think every major has some element of global health and this minor will allow us to synthesize those passions,” Savard said.

The issues global health seeks to address include health inequities around the world, including domestic disparities.

“A lot of times when we think of global health, we think of poor people who live elsewhere, but medical anthropologists have long recognized the interconnectedness of people around the globe, not just through the spread of disease…that’s part of it–illnesses transcend locations and borders – but also that political and economic disparities globally shape people’s access to treatment and care differently,” Block said.

According to Block, being years into a global pandemic especially demonstrates this interconnectedness. She said COVID-19 is an example of how global health doesn’t just affect people “somewhere else.” In reality, many global health issues are pervasive in the United States healthcare system.

“We do look at international issues, but… we are also looking at the disparities that we see in America and all the issues within healthcare [through] social and cultural lenses,” Brinkman said.

She said that compared to other developed countries, the United States has the lowest access to healthcare for nations of its wealth. The United States has the highest rates of disparity by race, meaning lack of access to healthcare affects Black patients significantly.

“In America, where we claim to have such good healthcare, we also have some of the greatest disparities,” Brinkman said. “What interests me about global health is how we fix those disparities and get equal access. It’s about seeing people as equal and getting rid of bias against people different than us.”

The passion of the global health minor ios a step through fighting disparity and prioritizing health.

“Global health spans every discipline, and we need people to be invested in that,” Savard said. “Our community is saying that we want to prioritize global health and we think this is important. The passing of the minor did just that.”