A new book entitled Health, Ethnicity and Well- Being was discussed and signed at it’s premier launch at Paradise Cove on January 31st, 2014 at 6pm. A turnout of approximately thirty-five persons attended the signing where Anguilla’s involvement in healthcare, the delivery of healthcare, the allocation of healthcare resources, and the benefit of healthcare linkages were discussed. Minister of Education Jerome Roberts; Dean of the Medical School Dr. Claude Iliou; Dr. Lowe Hughes; Anguilla Community College Professor Delroy M. Louden; and several others, including members of the Anguilla public particularly interested in the field of healthcare; were present. The book, overall, addresses those who influence the delivery of healthcare, especially policymakers, politicians and healthcare providers whose attitudes and beliefs affect the extent to which the health care services provided to this diverse population are effective.
“It’s difficult to talk to a healthcare provider who comes from a different culture to yours,” Professor Louden said. “For the medical schools and the nursing schools, and the health professions that are training doctors and nurses, they have to begin to understand these populations differently. We have what we call health disparities. In some areas healthcare is well provided for, but for a growing population healthcare isn’t provided for at all – or it’s very small. Those are the people who cost us – and if we don’t intervene early enough they are the ones that cost us more money because they are coming in states of more advanced illnesses and so forth. It means outreach is what we need to do more of, and it’s something we have not done much of in the Caribbean.”
Profesor Louden’s chapter in the book is entitled “Epidemiological Issues – Critical Factors in Cultural Competent Health Care,” and covers the demographic population shifts in the US and Canada that are driving the need for more responsive healthcare delivery system in those countries.
Several other writers appear in the book covering the topics of Aging, Smoking, Gender and Health Care, HIV/AIDS Prevention and Intervention and more. The writers sat down together and planned an outline of the book and then decided who would cover which topic. Drafts were reviewed by Dr Louden and his editor to see if the central themes fitted within the book. The book is the final instalment in a trilogy of books. The first is Personality Assessment and Culture and the second is Bilingual Children.
Dr. Louden plans to release a pair of monographs more locally-centred and is busy providing academic leadership in the community and at the Anguilla Community College. An African American Perspective is available through bookstores and online at Amazon, Barnesandnoble and Xlibris.
Article by Josharmond McKinson-Romney
