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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Blake Gentry, MPPM, Guatemala Acupuncture and Medical Aid Project, POB 85371, Tucson, AZ 85754, 520 623-6620, blakegentry2003@yahoo.com and Jorge Ibarra, MD, MPH, Health Sciences, The University of Texas, El Paso, 1101 North Campbell Street, El Paso, TX 79902.

Guatemala Acupuncture and Medical Aid Project (GUAMAP) identifies four requisite outcomes for a sustainable rural health model in Northern Guatemala, two Community Outcomes; 1) Compensation for health promoters-acupuncturists either through community provision or market based pricing mechanisms, 2) transfer of acupuncture skill in diagnosis and treatment, and two Institutional Outcomes; 3) establishing a needle supply chain including operational protocols for needle acquisition, use, and disposal, 4) Self - regulation of acupuncture practice as a step toward legal recognition of medical practice.

The model operates under constraints of mixed economies, skill acquisition regulation, and social organization. Sustainability of the model, in the context of post war Guatemala, rests on changing social relations among three types of communities: resettled refugees, internally displaced communities, and local indigenous poor. GUAMAP hypothesizes that identification of indicators for outcomes of practitioner compensation and self-regulation are critical to replication of the model. Currently, legal recognition is bureaucratically possible, but impractical.

Finally, indicators for the four outcomes constitute current GUAMAP research and reflect its organizational learning. GUAMAP's model of sustainable community based public health contributes to the discussion of transferability of rural health models as an area of inquiry for other international health projects and members of APHA.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) will be able to

• Recognize four long-term outcomes of the sustainable rural community health model.
• Describe three types of communities where social relations occur.
• Articulate the GUAMAP sustainable rural community health project
• Discuss the transferability of the sustainable rural community health model to other rural communities.

Keywords: Sustainability, Community-Based Health Care

Related Web page: www.guamap.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation