Prenatal care is a type of care provided to pregnant women and it aims at assisting women to have a healthy pregnancy that is necessary for both the mother and the unborn child. As a health professional in an organization providing such services, I would be involved in doing check-up on pregnant women so as to prevent potential health risks and also treat some. I would be advising on the right diet, avoiding exposure to certain harmful material like radioactive substance that may cause complications in pregnancy, controlling some conditions that the patient would be having, for example diabetes and epilepsy (Gagnon et al. 2009).
In an organization that offers multicultural family connection programs, I would be involved in various activities that are aimed at family in relations to parenting, understanding their cultural environment and set-up amongst other things. Some of these activities are advising parents on the various facilities and services available for them in their local settings, educating them on how to raise a healthy family, imparting knowledge and skills to these parents concerning early childhood development, teaching couples about family violence and its impacts to the family and to their children etc. These activities would be programmed such that we visit different areas at different times and we also handle different topics at the right time (Miranda et al. 2006). Culturally responsive care is the provision of health care to patients but being cognizant of the diverse social-cultural backgrounds. Culturally responsive home visitation programs are designed to provide medical care that delves into cultural issues like best practices in cultures that promote healthy living, demystifying cultural beliefs that would be putting certain cultures at risks, for example the practice of female genital mutilation (Santamaria, 2009). I would also be involved in promoting social integration between different cultures, imparting knowledge on issues like reproductive health, gender issues, etc. These are organized visitation to communities that have varied social and cultural practices. These programs are meant to handle health issues affecting certain social and cultural groups health wise.
Family support for intervention services are services that are meant to intervene and help families at their time of need. These services are mostly offered by organizations as part of their community social responsibilities or alternatively, some organizations offer them to their employees (Pharoah, 2010). As a health professional, I would be involved in designing of family support services like helping families with disabled children access medical care maybe at a subsidized cost if that is provide for in my organization, providing counselling services to families that may be living under some trauma, closely monitoring children with chronic diseases, helping families with members that need special medical attention like surgery though my organization’s programs if they are available, or through finding other avenues through which they can be helped.
When involved in programs that deal with multicultural support for children with disabilities, basically I will be involved in activities like teaching parents of children with disabilities on how to take care of such children in the society, trying to explain such disabilities to communities that have bad perceptions to people with certain disabilities. For example, I would be involved in the polio vaccination campaign in Nigeria and I would be trying to demystify the belief that polio is a curse. Such activities would involve organization of multicultural social activities like sports through which different cultural issues can be addressed from a common point of view (Seligman & Darling, 2009). I would also be involved in identification of health professional within the society to help in campaigns that would help promote healthy living in the society like use of mosquito nets to control malaria in the tropics, clearing of stagnant pools of water, etc.
Intercultural early learning programs are those that aim at instill cultural acceptance in the young generation with diverse cultural background. As a health professional involved in this sector, I would be involved in activities which brings cultures together like sports and cultural events where different cultures come to show case their best of cultural practices. I would ensure that as a health professional, I promote cultural practices that impact positively on their health and discourage those that are harmful to their health (Gu, Schweisfurth & Day, 2010). These would ensure that the coming generation grows with knowledge on diversity of culture and acceptance and also on positive cultural practices that they should adopt from other cultures.
Immigrant and refugee youth initiatives program would involve reaching out to the young immigrants and youth. As health professional, I would be involved in promoting mental development of this group of people bearing in mind their situation. I would also be providing education to them on reproductive health and also encouraging them to exploit their talents and abilities (Rossiter & Rossiter, 2009). On another level, intercultural competency training are programs designed to identify and build talents in different cultural groups by creating some avenues for competition and training, through these, I would impart skills and knowledge which would be useful to communities and their co-existence (Deardorff, 2006). A multi senior outreach program would be that used to reach out to senior members of a society, through these, as a health professional, I might be involved in activities like guidance and counseling on family and parenthood issues, educating senior members of the society on issues pertaining position of women in the society and also designing programs that provide medical care for the old (Yeo & Gallager, 2013).
References
Gagnon, A. J., Zimbeck, M., Zeitlin, J., & Roam Collaboration. (2009). Migration to western industrialised countries and perinatal health: a systematic review. Social science & medicine, 69(6), 934-946.
Miranda, A. O., Bilot, J. M., Peluso, P. R., Berman, K., & Van Meek, L. G. (2006). Latino families: The relevance of the connection among acculturation, family dynamics, and health for family counseling research and practice. The Family Journal, 14(3), 268-273.
Santamaria, L. J. (2009). Culturally responsive differentiated instruction: Narrowing gaps between best pedagogical practices benefiting all learners. The Teachers College Record, 111(1), 214-247.
Pharoah, F., Mari, J., Rathbone, J., & Wong, W. (2010). Family intervention for schizophrenia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 12.
Seligman, M., & Darling, R. B. (2009). Ordinary families, special children: A systems approach to childhood disability. Guilford Press.
Gu, Q., Schweisfurth, M., & Day, C. (2010). Learning and growing in a ‘foreign’context: Intercultural experiences of international students. Compare, 40(1), 7-23.
Rossiter, M. J., & Rossiter, K. R. (2009). Diamonds in the rough: Bridging gaps in supports for at-risk immigrant and refugee youth. Journal of International Migration and Integration/Revue de l'integration et de la migration internationale, 10(4), 409-429.
Deardorff, D. K. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal of studies in international education, 10(3), 241-266.
Yeo, G., & Gallager-Thompson, D. (Eds.). (2013). Ethnicity and the Dementias Second Edition. Routledge.
