Although Trinidad and Tobago has attempted to improve their public health capacity to tackle high rates of breast cancer mortality and morbidity, two structural barriers to this capacity require the greatest attention: public mistrust in western medicine, as well as socio-economic and racial disparities. Thus, there is a need for enhanced socio-medical solutions to these barriers that reflect an overall patient and community-centered approach. One such solution is narrative medicine, which bridges the gap between the healthcare system and patients by introducing opportunities for empathetic and culturally sensitive medical care. Of the many ways narrative medicine can be applied in Trinidad and Tobago, the creative writing and story-telling art forms have proven to be quite successful. This paper will argue that significant socio-medical insights are embedded in these Caribbean literary works of fiction and can be used to effectively apply narrative medicine in the PHC system in Trinidad and Tobago. They possess both credibility and authority in emphasizing the paradigmatic truths of these local lived experiences and can therefore be used to inform pedagogical methods of delivering narrative medicine in T&T. Using evidence from sociologists and health innovation scholars and Caribbean authors, the representation of the two structural barriers will be discussed in five short stories and poems using the narrative medicine model. Both the mythological and biopolitical themes of narrative medicine within these literary works will be highlighted. Potential pedagogical strategies for implementing the socio-medical insights found using the narrative medicine model will also be presented. By: Aeda Bhagaloo, Level IV H.B.A. International Development Studies Student at University of Toronto
Comments