Project

Interprofessional and intercultural approaches in Ecuador and Belgium. Crossing borders, sharing experiences, improving health.

Code
13v01221-19
Duration
01 January 2021 → 31 August 2022
Funding
Federal funding: VLIR-UOS
Research disciplines
  • Social sciences
    • Cultural and cross-cultural psychology
    • Sociology of health
    • Citizenship, immigration and political inequality not elsewhere classified
Keywords
Interprofessional education access to health care Andean countries medical sociology barriers psychosocial care
 
Project description

Ecuador and Belgium are very different countries. Yet they face similar challenges in light of increased vulnerable populations and the need to enhance healthcare coverage. This project seeks to contribute with some theoretical and empirical devices which can introduce synergic perspectives of interculturalism and interprofessionalism into current welfare policies.

Rooted in both path-dependent processes and neoliberal reforms, Ecuador faces multi-dimensional poverty about 38%, with only 32% of adequate employment, alongside gender violence and rural and ethnic exclusion. It remains a challenge for health staff to be trained in approaches that engage seriously with issues of power and culture; issues which require both interprofessional and intercultural approaches. Similarly, since the 2010s Belgium is housing an ever increasing multiethnic population, where policies have failed to adequately provide care that is culturally sensitive, and thus, effective, or at least to comprehend health and wellbeing in a broader cultural sense. Likewise, a shortage of trained staff has become chronic in the institutional health landscape, which other industrialised nations are tackling through interprofessional practice aiming at enhancing professionals’ traditional roles.

While the interprofessional approach has been widely debated –and gradually adopted– in the global north, this is less so in countries such as Ecuador. In contrast, however, Ecuador has a reputation for deploying an intercultural lens in its most recent reforms, including the constitution of the country.

The present proposal aims to produce an exchange of knowledges and practices in ways that can inform professional training and welfare policy in both countries, in light of the acquired expertise of both the researchers.