Barriers to Treatment

Barriers

According to a publication from the American Medical Association in 1916, Haiti required physicians to attend six years of graduate school and pass a board medical exam prior to gaining licensure to practice medicine. Current medical practices have not changed much. Experts in the United States have recently announced plans to rebuild the dilapidated Haitian system of education that was recently tested during the earthquake of 2010. Of those who died in the January earthquake, 73 were doctors, nurses, and auxiliary health care staff (Pellerin, 2010). Cynthia Obenhaus is a Registered Nurse (R.N.) in the States of Missouri and Kansas; she is also an advocate and constant traveler to Haiti on medical missions. Many doctors and health care professionals set up clinics that provide basic care to Haitians in outlying areas, and more recently the capital of Port-au-Prince (C. A. Obenhaus, personal communication, November 20, 2010). Obenhaus (personal communication, November 20, 2010) states that when traveling to Haiti to treat patients she has never needed more that proof of licensure in the United States, and ensures that she carries it with her wherever she goes.. “Given Haiti’s current circumstances, they take whomever they can get” (C. A. Obenhaus, personal Communication, November 20, 2010). According to the AMA (2010), any practicing physician is eligible to volunteer services in Haiti. The only requirement is that they have current licensure within the United States. Very little accessible information is available regarding current licensing information for Haitian physicians.

Reception to Care

Prior to the January 2010 earthquake, little to no mental health services existed in Haiti (Bajak, 2010). The situation is now one of ensuring that the fragile state of mental health care in Haiti is established. Hatians are a people of warm reception, but their culture is riddled with violence and instability (culturegrams, 2010). According...