Degree Level
B.A.
Program
Interdisciplinary Studies
Abstract
This paper focuses on barriers to public health in Latino American Indigenous communities. Indigenous people throughout the world are at a public health disadvantage due to a lack of clearly defined practices within the decision-making processes to plan, evaluate, and control finances from governmental and non-governmental entities in charge of managing health services. I argue that political, social, and institutional changes are still needed to achieve health equity in Indigenous communities and that these changes should go beyond implementing a universal health care program. I must recognize improvements made by many Latino American countries like Brazil, which prepared a plan to address Indigenous people’s health through a critical approach that addresses health in a holistic perspective to increase the availability and inclusion of health services to Indigenous people. However, there is still space to improve, include, and advance health services. I found that to realize improvements to health there are five barriers to consider, and these include cultural differences, interdisciplinarity, socioeconomic disparities, laws, and linguistics. Having this in mind, the paper will be of interest to the general public and to non-profit and governmental entities that are seeking to work or currently working with Indigenous communities since it will provide some insights into challenges and the best practices to adhere to when communicating public health to Indigenous people.
Publication Date
Spring 4-29-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Recommended Citation
Quiles Guzman, Wilzave, "Barriers to Public Health in Latino American Indigenous Communities" (2022). Honors Program Theses and Research Projects. 15.
https://commons.stmarytx.edu/honorstheses/15
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Included in
Environmental Health Commons, Environmental Public Health Commons, International Relations Commons, Latin American Languages and Societies Commons, Other Public Health Commons, Social Justice Commons
Comments
I am grateful to everyone who has helped me find my passions throughout my whole undergraduate program here at St. Mary's University. This would not have been possible without all of your inspiration and guidance. Gracias!