the driver's seat

Interesting how life shows you sides you thought you knew but in fact never saw its beauty. For life it self has many sides...

I’ve been working on public health issues for some time now, and felt that I’ve more or less grasped most of the issues quite fully...I guess the fact that I come from a developing country myself helps make me feel more or less grounded, especially to colleagues here who haven’t had the chance to experience work at country level. Surely I felt more of my future knowledge would be on overseeing things from the far end of reality, hoping to be able to translate that in people’s needs...those far away from here.

Little did I know, reality was not beyond me (thank goodness :)
I fell a bit ill this past week. Not sure of what cause, but basically came down with something pretty serious 2 weeks ago, thought I had recovered, then had this really bizarre dose of vertigo for 2 days. Went to the pharmacy, got some pills, as it didn’t go away, then I went to the doctor, took some blood test, and now just waiting for the result.
Surely nothing serious, its just one of those days.

But guess what I learned.

Its common knowledge (for those in this particular field) that increasing access to health facilities is a main objective. Us in Indonesia, have not yet managed to cover all that. Then there’s the issue of measuring treatment, and there are analyses of ‘the people’ trying to ‘treat themselves’ instead of seeking professional care. Now we’re talking about rural areas right?
Think again.
And this is what I learnt.

I live in a developed country, have a job that pays pretty decent, plus I’m fully covered by insurance (on some days I don’t feel as lucky though—that’s what being a human being is all about, isn’t it :P).
Now, for me to go to the doctor was rather painful. Having to take the bus (the wait, the walk, the everything) is not necessarily the easiest thing to do when your vision tends to take a 360 degree spin every now and then (the vertigo)—plus its worse if the public transportation is far from reliable, as it usually is in developing countries, unfortunately. But even here, where all is seemed peach and perfect, its not the most convenient way to transport when you’re ill.
I don’t have a car because I decided to put that off until later; and I seriously don’t think driving myself there is actually recommended :P. So, having someone to take me was the best solution. Yet, everybody has their own lives, their own different schedules, so then again, its not necessarily that easy.

Well, thank God I was well capable of going to the Medical Centre myself (though the dozen stairs going up to reach the MedCentre was a rather weird surprise), and didn’t need to leave work for it—and I’m sure I could rely on some people to be kind enough to help in case I didn’t manage to.
But the point here is that...I immediately was reminded of a discussion I had a year ago with a seasoned officer in the Ministry of Health, working on Maternal and Child health and the topic was about increasing access to health facilities in the village for Maternal care. He argued that yes, providing incentives (as in a small stipend) for the patient to seek treatment in a sub district level was all well intended for, yet...do you really think the lady could go out there on her own? She’d need a chaperone, and if you don’t provide the chaperone with the same facility, then tough luck, the lady stays sick in the village. Plus, if this is provided the chaperone has time (can leave his/her work/family etc), cause if not, then that also leads to a no go. Though what he said made sense, my immediate thought (of course internally) was that ‘boy, that’s just making a simple thing too complicated’. If a woman needs treatment, you give her money, she goes and seeks treatment, and voila...she get better *yes, given the quality of care is sufficient—but that’s an overall goal* (btw, this is all a simplistic response to such direct approaches. I in particular have my own views; for example that what ever support is provided for public services, it should as much as it could aim to strengthen existing channels. But that’s a different posting).
So, what the guy said made sense, but then again, it didn’t really sink in, until today.

Yeah, put yourself in the passenger’s seat once in a while :)

-moenlite-