He said that unlike the usual Biomedical model — where a patient goes to hospital and the doctor asks for symptoms and makes up his mind as to what he thinks is wrong with the patient and then gives him medicine – in Integrated Environmental model, the doctor sends an environmental health team to check out the state of patients’ home to see if there are things that are causing the ailment and therefore needed to be taken care of.
“For example, kids come to hospital with skin infections,” Kuartei explained. “After a while if I send a team to their house and they clean up, the kids never come back to the hospital with skin infections ever again.”
According to him, they need know what happens at home, what’s the economic situation. Although some might take it as intrusion to their privacy, Kuartei said they don’t go to people’s houses unannounced. They go by referral. “We ask permission. If the person or family is looking for a solution to their health problems, he or they can achieve that through this particular model.”
But they’re not going to tell you to do this and that. “It’s still going to be your choice,” he said.
The usual Biomedical model only deals with physical aspect of the person, he explained. “We need to take care of a person’s mental, spiritual, economic and social aspects. By adapting this model, I think we will be able to take care of our clients better.”
