Reading group on Practices of (Non) Engagement With Health Services (fwd)

It is my plea­sure to invite you to an online read­ing group joint­ly organ­ised by the CRASSH Health Med­i­cine Agency Net­work and the Geor­gra­phies of Health group at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge. This is going to take place on Fri­day 14th May at noon (British Sum­mer Time).

For this joint read­ing group, we ask how we can under­stand and poten­tial­ly inter­vene upon prac­tices of (non)engagement between cer­tain sociode­mo­graph­ic groups and health­care services.

With Beat­riz Aragon, a med­ical anthro­pol­o­gist and med­ical prac­ti­tion­er work­ing along­side the Gip­sy Roma Trav­eller com­mu­ni­ty in Spain for years, we will read and dis­cuss the sec­ond chap­ter of her PhD the­sis, ‘The Admis­sion Desk’. This chap­ter bril­liant­ly describes health­care access, prej­u­dice and dis­crim­i­na­tion of GRT groups from the ground up.

To com­ple­ment that per­spec­tive, we will dis­cuss strate­gies to involve and engage with less heard com­mu­ni­ties in health­care and research in the UK. Bel­la Star­ling, Vocal’s direc­tor and Well­come Trust engage­ment fel­low, will guide us through the inno­v­a­tive work that her team col­lab­o­rates with a diverse range of com­mu­ni­ty rep­re­sen­ta­tives in Manchester.

Diverg­ing in their approach­es, we want to pro­vide a forum and two read­ings to dis­cuss what is gained and what is lost from the method­olog­i­cal and con­cep­tu­al deci­sions we make when try­ing to unpack issues such as ‘cul­tur­al dif­fer­ence’ con­cern­ing health-seek­ing and clin­i­cal research participation.

Vis­it http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/29646 for the zoom link, and essen­tial and fur­ther reading.

We look for­ward to dis­cussing these issues with you.