Domestic and Sexual Violence in Womens Health and Development - Research Paper Example

Domestic and Sexual Violence in Women Health and Development Inserts Domestic and Sexual Violence in Women Health and Development 1. Introduction The course introduces the relationship between health and development for women in the developing world. It is designed to allow for critical discussion and debate on the issues, which confront womens health and status. The research is conducted by focusing on the roles and contributions of women at all levels of society. Course themes will include gender evaluation, the economic level of productions, patterns of mortality and morbidity, education levels, and conditional health status of both women and children in the society. Topics included are gender and tropical disease, reproductive health, violence, human rights and health, STDs/HIV, international health policy, mental health, and the impact of globalization on health (Smith, 2008). Outline of Class Sessions Introduction to Gender and Health A general introduction to the concepts of gender and development. An overview of the major health issues confronting women and public health workers in the developing world will form part of the development. The implications of poverty on women and their families will be a major theme. It will also discuss which international institutions involved in international health and development. Population and Reproduction The fundamental determinant of the growth of population of the society is the fertility of a woman. The international women’s health movement is a powerful force in determining the international public health agenda. Who are they? What are their motivations? What have they accomplished? What is their unfinished agenda? Issues of gender and sexuality will also form part of the topic along with their consequences for health. Women and Sexually Transmitted Disease and HIV The impact of STDs, including AIDS, will be discussed this week. It will also address the role of gender, the biology of women, and the public health. It will also consider sexuality will as central to policy and program design. Ethical concerns, such as confidentiality and discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS, will be discussed. Violence, Human Rights, and Health Recent reports indicate that violence is a significant cause of death and morbidity for women in the developing world. The issue of violence against women, rape, and other reproductive rights issues form part of human rights framework (Rogo et al.. 2007). They both broaden the existing human rights paradigm and provide new strategies to activists in their efforts to address inequalities in health. Women, Work, and Health Duties that women perform for both home and the community as a whole significantly influence their health and their health seeking behavior. The women’s work in the developing world, its importance for the household economy and the overall economy of the country, and the links between production and health Gender and Tropical Disease Tropical disease continues to be a significant threat to people in the developing world. This week we will review the status of tropical disease in the developing countries, assess its impact on health and development, and discuss what a gender analysis of the situation would reveal. We will also discuss research needs and the methods that might applicable along with the successes and failures of health interventions in this area (Rogo et al.. 2007). Women and Mental Health Mental health traditionally is a public health concern. There exists precise evidence that affirms that mental health is a critical area of need that is little understood in the international context. This week will explore the idea of mental illness and health in non-Western settings, examine existing research, and draw linkages between mental health and public health. Environment and Health The lesson will seek to evaluate the relationship between environmental degradation and women’s health. In the world of today, women gather resources used in everyday life such as water and fuel. When these resources are scarce or degraded, women and their families suffer. Globalization and development are said to contribute to this loss of resources. Designing Health Interventions and Policy How can public health specialists best design health interventions that will meet the needs of women and their communities? We will first discuss how interventions and policy are currently designed and who the main players are in this process (Sharma & Atri, 2010). Globalization and Health The speed with which people, capital, and information traverse the globe is unique in our age. As the week progresses, the lesson will tackle the implications of globalization on health. Is globalization a positive or a negative feature of economic growth (or both)? We will consider how the migration of people and the ease with travel influence disease transmission and development policy(Schuller, 2007). 2. Planning Course Objectives The themes highlighted in the course objectives throughout each session. The main course themes are the role of status, power, and poverty and their intimate relationship to womens health. Upon the completion, the course will be able to: No particular weighting forms part of the above factors since all are deemed important, and the grade based on cumulative performance. However, demonstrating consistent improvement and learning throughout the course is one of its objectives for implementation to the learners. The final paper will be an in-depth exploration of an international women’s health issue (Zuniga, 2013). The class assignments and presentation will: Apply a gender perspective to health and development programs. Acquire the knowledge and be able to explain the major issues that threaten the health and status of women in developing count Understand and be able to discuss the link between women’s health and socioeconomic status. Grading: Grading will is as follows: Attendance, class participation, and in-class assignments. A formal in-class presentation Methodology A total of nine focus groups participated with women from support services and refuges. The first group of six of the women engaged their research in the urban centers while the remaining three chose the rural areas. There were also another two groups that carried their research on the aboriginal women from their centers. Each focus group used a standardized procedure. All sessions were tape-recorded (Schuller, 2007). Domains for Evaluation There were four ‘domains’ of for evaluation and analysis. Services that women get from the Health Service are as a result of domestic violence domestic violence. Satisfaction of women with the Health Service services after their attention to them due to issues of domestic violence. Satisfaction of women with other alternative health service providers on the issue of domestic violence Opportunities that the Public health will use in future to improve their services to domestic violence related problems. The information collected from the interviews conducted was so vital for data analysis purposes and also for compiling the report of the study in general. The research groups stored the information on tapes that they carried with them. Results A total 65 women with experience in the domestic violence related case participated in the study. Each group had 3 to 6 of the women. The age range of the participants was 33 to 37 years. Most of the participants dropped out from school at primary level. 43% percent of the participants are leading single life after separating with their husbands while 96% of them lacked the medical cover. 3. Implementation Class Participation, Assignments, and Presentations There will be assigning to activities in classes that will help stimulate discussion and thinking about the topics in that week. Assignments may include in-class writing, small group discussions, informal debates between students, and presentations by students. Each student will prepare at least one formal 15-20 minute presentation on a topic agreed upon by the student and the instructor. Presentations should include overheads or other visual aids, a summary page of the argument presented, and a list of references on which the performance. The presentation aims to inform the class about a particular health issue, show the existing state of knowledge about the issue, and recommend future actions. Final Paper Students will prepare a paper of 10-15 double-spaced, typed pages. Students will choose one topic with the assistance of the instructor that links women’s health and development. The paper topic may be the same as the presentation topic. The paper should analyze the nature of the issue and the controversies within it as well as the links between the health problem and development policy and programs. Possible topics include the potential impact of AIDS on national development, contraceptive development, and testing. Research needs in women’s health, the use of the media in designing health interventions and the role of the World Bank particularly in international health policy (Sen Gupta 2005). The submission of the paper for approval purposes by the instructor in charge will be before mid-July. However, allowances are there for inconveniences that may occur during the course of the learning period such as sickness or mid-semester breaks. In such instances, an extension for the submission of the papers will be up to late July. Health Facility Attendance Levels Most of the women involved in the study lacked the information on the services that relates to the domestic violence. For those women who had prior knowledge of the domestic violence case concern issues had some burning and critical questions that triggered them to visit the public health centers. The women knew about the services offered by the health facilities and the requirement of providing the services to the public health hospital. Some of the women also got the information to the domestic violence from watching the audiovisual materials such as television. 4. Accessing Reflection on the Report Findings The environmental factors are one of the issues that could have made it quite uneasy for the women participate effectively in the study. Such factors are the room size and its nature; offices privacy status and the consolation methodologies that the survey used by the respondents. Some respondents also never participated to their fullest due to the limitations of time while others feared revealing much of their privacy to the public for the fear of an unknown size. Many women had the opinion that by showing their domestic violence situation to the third party would end in the loss of their children. Some o of the women lived in societies that prohibited revealing of the domestic violence issues to the children. At the moment, that does takes place, to the extent of the childrens knowledge, then such a woman had to forfeit her children to the society concerned (Murthy $ Smith, 2010). Apart from the fear of rejection from the society due to a woman revealing her home affairs to the public, she also faced other forms of stigmatization. Such stigmatizations forms are sense of guilt, feeling of shame within the societys eye, and also feeling to be of no strength within the society’s decision-making. The service providers Most women do value so much the love and compassion that they beget from someone or group of individuals. Apart from compassion and trust, women also appreciate the understanding and the support that they get from wherever they are in from working they do. The negative perception of the services that the Public Health facilities offer contributed to womens thinking that b such places were not, therefore, suitable for visiting when faced with domestic problems. Most women’s relationship with the staff in [public health facilities are frosty (Hansen et al. 2007). The women in most case prefer the same gender when collecting some vital information from them. In such instances, where different sex comes in to gather information from them, they also always fail to give the maximum cooperation necessary for the purposes of the study. There were also other men in the study who were also victims of the domestic violence; there had the fear of not express their cooperation to the study. The men also feared stigmatization from their fellow men. They also feared that the interviewers might not believe their facts right being that they are men who have the energy to resist any act of violence that may occur to from their wives (Revenga & Shetty, 2011). The staff found many wide varieties of questions from the interviews responses they got from women. They include the issues concerning the causes of the injuries the get from domestic squabbles. The staff, therefore, considered the level of privacies relating to the women during their study. There also framed the questions in a cohesive manner that could not conflict with interests of the women so that they could give the information irrelevant to the topic of the study. In this case, therefore, the women had the opportunity also to give their views on the questions they would prefer to answer in the study. Direct questions, therefore, in this case did not fit because it created a room for s later feedback from the clients (Meleis, 2011). Appropriate Help The women were in agreement that people with past domestic violence influences on their lives were necessary for attention from the Public Health Servile. Such attention would enable the health sector to make their necessary arrangements and also plans that could assist in their reformation and solution to the problems related to the domestic violence cases especially to the women. The suggested methodologies that could enable such changes are an increase in the available print media information services and trainings to the staffs in the health industry. Other suggestions were the modalities for getting the feedback from the information sought from the women by the Health officials. There was also the organization of workshop activities that could help too in assessment of the real situation from an enormous number of women from the society (Grown et al. 2006). There issues that came from the study such as [ways to deal with the violence against children and how to determine the correct justice tat suits those characters that cause domestic violence especially to women. In the event that the accused gets free or evades justice from the local authorities, then counseling would serve the last option to both the victims affected by the act. 5. Conclusion The sample used most of its results from the women who gave the necessary support required and also other women too from the refugee’s camp too who also participated in the sample study. However, by involving the refugees’ view to the report, some act of biasness must have taken place from the collection of the information from the respondents. A god example is in the case of the variation of service provision to the various groups of the two women; the refugees and those from the support group. Women from the support groups must have had all the amenities including the health services unlike the women from the refugee camp who could be lacking almost everything In the health facilities. In such situation women from the support groups, may fail to visit the Public Health hospital. Women from the refugee camp being that they almost lack the basics of life, often do visit health centers for medicinal checkup services. During the collection of, the statistics of refugee women may be higher as compared to the support group women. When compiling the final data from the information or the already tabled facts, a bigger variation between the support and the refugee women may at times occur. The big change which is not a real representation proof happenings most; women get triggered, therefore, may be the biasness observed (Elit & Froese, 2007). Most women got reasonably good services from the support from the support group. It can be, therefore, concluded from this that most women were of urgency for the need of health services within their environment or place of living (Currie-Alder, 2014). The paper in some instances too also covers some of the units the course of public health. Some of them are emergency needs in the hospital through the privacy issue of the women in refusing to divulge some of their problems to the study groups. It, therefore, calls for changes in the public health services, especially the community health centers since they are close to the women who live in the roar areas (Fraser & Tinker, 2004). The participants from the focus groups activities can identify the very many areas that needed improvement of health services. The participants in the discussion groups study had the capability to note the areas for improvement in the service area of provision. The support groups found out that there was a need for a supportive environment. In such settings, it would be easier for the service providers to develop safety issues conclusively and also create the mood of understating that is tolerable to all in the society, especially to the women. It will also establish a room for options that will offer to women the opportunity to have the best choices for the future (Armstrong & Deadman, 2009). Women also passed through mental and the physical torture. Through the assistance of the government and the nongovernmental organizations, they managed to move with their life in the long run. However, the public health services must continuously tackle the level of services offered to people with domestic violence problems especially the women in particular. Special acknowledgments also go to the women who took part in the participation in the study. They gave their domestic violence related stories that enabled the compilation of the report from the study. Such reports, therefore, provided the alternatives for the improvement of the health facilities for the benefit of women (Chanda, 2009). Reference Armstrong, P. and Deadman, J. (2009). Womens Health. Toronto: Womens Press. Chandra, P. (2009). Contemporary Topics In Womens Mental Health. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Currie-Alder, B. (2014). International Development. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press. Fraser, A. and Tinker, I. (2004). Developing Power. 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