synecdoche assignment

Perhaps a little bit of irony for the part/whole ideas in the synecdoche idea.
We can see here that the women symbol includes the red cross (one of the most common symbols for health.) Obviously, this was not the intention of the creator of the symbol, and it's not the same as a part of the woman being used as a symbol as the whole woman, or a part of health. but it's interesting to put forth the combinations of the two ideas in a single symbol.


So, as the synecdoche, a part of the whole, I think it would be interesting to look at street clinics/NGOs catering to women. This encompasses the importance of the grassroots and alternative approaches ( as examples of the social dynamics in the group we're examining). Small group mobilization in a larger context, like clinics in a large national health care system, has a lot of implications in the areas of access to care and personalization of care to the populations it serves.

Online Represent!

So, with the idea of combining my interests in health, I thought it would be interesting to examine how health information is disseminated in the Netherlands/Amsterdam, and if there were "culturally appropriate" health information and practices available for immigrant communities. If there are, do those services improve the quality of care or the perception of the quality of care received?

Harborview International Medicine Clinic provides some interesting services, including native language speaking staff and interpretive services in 70+ languages, house calls, educational material available online about specific different cultures for doctors and staff.

There are programs like this around the world, but the services they provide differ. This one, in New South Wales, Australia, focuses on communication between the provider and the patients and was set up by the national health service.

It might also be interesting to look at non-traditional ways to promote health, like this soccer game for AIDS awareness or the fashion show for positive body image that I co-produced in February.