21st C tool for reflection, problem solving

[Peter Jones (2)]

Hello,

If problems today require interdisciplinary solutions, then tomorrow effective transdisciplinary approaches will be crucial. This is not pie-in-the-sky theorizing. Health and social care are no longer the sole preserve of the clinic or waiting lounge. As the media has shown in diet and younger people, SARS, and AIDs; health is a national and international concern. The environment also begs with increasing urgency for our attention. We are all linked, interdependent: vulnerable. Policy makers recognise the need to engage with people politically and engender personal responsibility. Citizenship is crucial in health and the environment.

The scholastic 3Rs alone are no longer sufficient to equip youngsters for the challenges that lie ahead. Visual literacy and creative, critical and reflective skills are also needed. Is there a generic model that could be taught globally, a basis for a general studies curriculum? Is there a tool that possesses the additional desirable properties below? That is for you to decide…

* disarms yet empowers

* is simple yet complex

* local yet global

* applies to individuals and populations

* is neutral or activist

* is able to represent and disseminate

* engages and educates

* and transcends culture, politics, gender, beliefs and ethnicity.

The ubiquity of information provides the scope to not only think out of the box, but in it as well? More than ever health, the environment and democracy are like pearls threaded on a fine cord called quality of life. If informatics can help integrate the vision and information is the clasp that unifies, what tools do we have to handle this most delicate operation?

While not a panacea, Hodges’ Health Career – Care Domains – Model (h2cm) has enormous potential for clinicians, informaticians, policy makers and the public. Imagine if we all shared a common conceptual framework?

'h2cm' - a personal initiative - publicises a health and social care model, with much wider and universal applications, created in the UK by Brian E Hodges:

Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model [h2cm].

http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/

h2cm can help map health, social care and other issues, problems AND solutions, taking a situated and multi-contextual view across four knowledge domains:

* Interpersonal;

* Sociological;

* Empirical;

* Political (Autonomy).

I use the model with students and clients to aid reflection, engagement and problem solving.

Our links pages cover each care domain.

For example - Sociological domain links:

http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/links3.htm

Political:

http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/linksIV.htm

I hope this is relevant to you.

Yours sincerely.

Peter

Clinical Specialist: NHS Care Records Service / Informatics

Lancashire Care NHS Trust

h2cm webmaster/Contributor

Beechurst Unit

Chorley

Lancashire

UK