Part I
Search the Internet and you will find numerous churches, civic organizations, Charity organizations and schools offering medical mission trips to locations in South America, Central America, Caribbean and Africa to name a few. Many of these organizations are reputable in and of themselves. Some mission trips are surgical in purpose serving a dire need of repairing physical malformations, others serve to provide medical services cognitive and procedural, others serve to build structures. Much funds are often raised to support these ventures and although financials can be requested this is rarely done. There have been many reports of money not spent judiciously or cost effectively, funds not spent for services but to address a more burdensome administrative overhead and possibly even salaries.
Of fundamental importance is the need to have a collaborative arrangement with those the mission is intended to help, specifically the mission must be designed to help the local community in ways that they wish to be assisted and they must be a part of the mission. It’s important to be educated and understand the importance of cultural competence and cultural awareness as well as to be cognizant of the importance of the political arena, geographic position, religious and anthropologic history behind the culture and people of the mission.
As with any population health management project or collaborative effort, the following considerations must always be included during reviewer validity of a program. Consideration must be made for economic stability, neighborhood and physical environment, educational level, food/hunger, community and social context and the established health care system if any.
Specifically when considering economic stability one must investigate opportunities for employment, income and any other expenses; when considering neighborhood and physical environment consideration must be made for housing, transportation, safety, playground and parks and walkability; when considering education, literacy and language , vocational training or higher education must be considered; when considering food one must look into hunger and access to healthy options; for community and social context the consideration of support systems, community engagement, discrimination and social integration are important and lastly the health care system that is in place and the coverage, provider availability and access, quality of care and also linguistic and cultural competency of the providers in the system.
The strategy to accomplish a successful structure, organization and management of a medical mission whether volunteering or creating should ensure that these tenets serve as the filter through which a program is built. It is imperative to appreciate that the constructs have a medical mission should be self-sustainable. This means that the local citizens of the region should be educated and taught how to incorporate the new information and or experiences or resources provided to enhance their current existence in a manner desirable to them and sustainable by them. However, the visitors overseeing the medical mission or volunteering within the medical mission should also include as part of their sustainability strategy a plan to return periodically to the mission location to provide continued services or resources as needed.
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