We provide

• In-depth knowledge and expertise
• Programmes targeting your interests
• Capacity building of partners in developing countries
• Flexibility of timing and location of the courses
• Organisational strengthening: capacitate your team to better handle foreign contexts and interaction with local staff during clinical trials and public health interventions.
• Participatory development: how to improve cooperation and participation of local communities in clinical trials.
• Enhanced internal management: improve local management of your programme's implementation in the field.
  

Examples of training courses

Aims:
1. To introduce basic concepts of medical anthropology, adapted to public health and epidemiology.
2. To show the relevance and the direct influence of social setting and cultural context on public health interventions.
3. To provide basic tools to assess socio-cultural factors of illness and disease.

Target Group:
Health professionals with a particular interest in social sciences applied to public health research and policy.
More specifically participants are expected to be:
1. Health professionals that work with local communities and ethnic minorities in the field.
2. Health professionals in charge of designing and implementing epidemiological surveillance or control programmes.
3. Health professionals in charge of designing and implementing general public health interventions.
4. Health professionals in charge of designing and implementing clinical trials.

Expected Outcomes and Learning Objectives:
At the end of the workshop the participants are expected to be able to:
1. Identify relevant socio-cultural factors that render certain populations more vulnerable and more exposed to illness.
2. Identify relevant socio-cultural factors that impede access to health care.
3. Evaluate and assess when and where to employ social science tools in the field and identify the lack of such in general public health programmes.
4. Incorporate qualitative research methods in public health policy and assess the possibility of combining qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Methodology:
All sessions will consist of two parts,
1. Theoretic capacity building: Introduction and work with concepts and models, illustrated and contextualized with ethnographic examples.
2. Practical workshop: Participants will analyse concrete examples, design qualitative research methods and techniques (such as in-depth interviews, etc.), adapt basic models of health-seeking behaviour to the context of concrete medical/epidemiological research.

Concrete example of a training programme:
1. Ethnic minorities and the importance of inter-ethnic relations for public health interventions.
2. Health-seeking behaviour and access to health care.
2.1. Understanding local perceptions of infectious diseases
2.2. Understanding human behaviour
2.3. Understanding delay in treatment.
2.4. Social vulnerability
3. Qualitative research methods
3.1. Guided participant observation
3.2. In-depth interviews
3.3. Semi-structured questionnaires
3.4. Focus group discussions
3.5. Triangulation and the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.
4. The relevance and incorporation of social sciences in public health programmes and epidemiological projects.
4.1. When and how to include social sciences in the medical sector.
4.2. Relevance of understanding the social setting and cultural context for public health policies.

Upcoming training courses

Social Sciences Applied to Public Health Research and Policy. Ha Noi, Vietnam: 06-08-2007

If your organisation is interested in participating, please contact PASS International.