Global Health Special Interest Group

Download the GHSIG Bylaws.

• 2023 CSM Business Meeting Agenda
• 2020 CSM Business Meeting Minutes
• 2019 CSM Business Meeting Minutes
• 2018 CSM Business Meeting Minutes
• 2017 CSM Business Meeting Minutes
• 2015 CSM Business Meeting Minutes
• 2014 CSM Business Meeting Minutes

Purchase previous GHSIG Webinar Recordings:

• Develop Your PT Career with an International Element
• Rehabilitation 2030: A Call for Action - What it means for PTs interested in Global Health and Service-Learning
• Effective Physical Therapy Pro Bono Services in the United States
  
  

See an archive of GHSIG Video Podcasts on our YouTube channel.

In association with the Advocacy for Global Health Partnerships, in 2021, the GHSIG Leadership team partnered with the ALI to become a signatory to the Brocher Declaration included below.

"We, the undersigned, call on the international community to make every effort to maximize the value and minimize the harm of short-term engagements in global health. We urge health professionals, educators, faith-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, and other entities that participate in these short-term engagements to do so with awareness of the challenges and concerns, with due respect to all concerned, as well as with the responsibility of upholding social and ethical standards. 

We recognize that: 

• Global health as a field of practice should aim to reduce disparities in health and well-being around the world. 
• The ethical framework that underlies global engagement is based on principles of mutual respect, solidarity, and social justice.
• Communities’ needs should be the most critical driver of these activities and should be set by members of the communities themselves in conjunction with the health priorities of the country.
• Global health engagements should be sustainable, asset based, bidirectional, adhere to appropriate legal standards, and be adequately evaluated.

Short-term engagements have been critiqued for not considering community needs and at times unintentionally causing more harm than good. It is crucial for visitors from high income countries to shift the paradigm from viewing host communities as the “other” to viewing themselves as “outsiders”, while acknowledging the differences in needs, culture, and practices. Additionally, short-term global health activities must incorporate the most effective and equitable use of often-limited resources while building the host community’s health workforce capacity so that Universal Health Coverage goals are met. 

We hold that these following principles should guide all global health engagements: 

1. Mutual partnership with bidirectional input and learning 
   Health care varies greatly in terms of diseases, cultural and social determinants of health, languages spoken, clinical protocols, as well as political and economic conditions. This often leads to misalignment of short-term global health activities with the host country workforce and health priorities. Global health engagement should emphasize mutual partnership and bidirectionality, recognizing the expertise and experience of host country health professionals. 
   
   
2. Empowered host country and community define needs and activities 
   When short-term global health engagements are based on perceived needs or available skills, they can undermine the local voice while diverting much needed funds and efforts away from real needs, along with placing added burden of accommodation and safety on host communities. This can be exacerbated by power differentials between people in high- and low-income countries. The host country should drive the agenda for healthcare work. This begins with empowered host communities who understand specific needs for health care and indicate the activities that would lead to sustained health improvement. Special emphasis should be placed on the social determinants of health and the relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). 
   
   
3. Sustainable programs and capacity building 
   Global health programs should aim at capacity building within local communities such that important health needs are met and strengthened. This is possible when programs have sufficient input from the local communities and are committed to long-term healthcare development and sustainability. The overarching goal should be one of strengthening health systems rather than providing unsustainable alternatives. 
   
   
4. Compliance with applicable laws, ethical standards, and code of conduct 
   Quite often, short-term engagements do not consider the existing legal framework in the host country. Clinical care has been framed within the context of the classic bioethical principles of autonomy, justice, beneficence, and non-maleficence. Engaging in global health activities requires entities to consider other ethical principles including social justice, social contract, and utilitarian principles. Short-term global health partnerships must establish and abide by common quality principles and legal requirements. 
   
   
5. Humility, cultural sensitivity, and respect for all involved 
   International health volunteers and the organizations that coordinate their work often have motivations other than contributing to the health of people in host communities. These experiences can be seen as privileged volunteers gaining social capital at the expense of disadvantaged host communities. To alleviate this dynamic, those participating in short-term engagements must respect the culture, history, strengths, and limitations of the communities they are visiting, while simultaneously recognizing the limitations of their cursory understanding as non-members of the community. 
   
   
6. Accountability for actions 
   The overall emphasis of global health engagements should be on long-term health improvement of host communities. Global health engagements should be evaluated appropriately so that outcomes, unintended consequences, and spillover effects are reduced. If these standards are not upheld by short-term global health engagements, or if they cause negative impacts, they should be altered or ended. There should be special emphasis placed on the concerns of environmental impact due to the travel and activities involved. 

We call for efforts towards the ethical conduct of short-term global health engagements. Such activities are currently largely unregulated and have the potential to cause more harm than good. We firmly believe that the needs of the host community must be the primary driver of short-term global health engagements; and to achieve health equity, the care provided by these activities must align with national health plans and strategies. In addition, we encourage participants to uphold the same standard of providing valuable care to host community members as they do to their home communities and shift the paradigm of “other” to alleviate the social and ethical issues involved in this work. Furthermore, we ask individual countries to regulate global engagements to ensure that ethical and legal requirements are met. By actively working towards the implementation of the principles outlined above, we hope to improve global health work and most importantly, the impacts of that work on host communities."

World Physiotherapy, founded in 1951 as the World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT),  is the sole international voice for physical therapy, representing more than 350,000 physical therapists worldwide through its 111 member organizations. It operates as a non-profit organization and is registered as a charity in the UK. World Physiotherapy believes that every individual is entitled to the highest possible standard of culturally appropriate healthcare delivered in an atmosphere of trust and respect for human dignity, and underpinned by sound clinical reasoning and scientific evidence. It is committed to furthering the physical therapy profession and improving global health through:

• Encouraging high standards of physical therapy research, education, and practice
• Supporting the exchange of information between regions and member organizations
• Collaborating with national and international organizations

Health Volunteers Overseas is dedicated to improving the availability and quality of health care through the education, training and professional development of the health workforce in resource-scarce countries.

International Center for Disability and Rehabilitation (ICDR) The mission of ICDR is to advance the function and well-being of people of all abilities through a scholarly mandate that focuses on:

• Education: enriching the educational experience of rehabilitation science students locally and globally, and providing professional development for rehabilitation professionals to become more responsive to global needs
• Research: Contributing to new knowledge and innovation on international issues in rehabilitation and disability
  

World Health Organization (WHO) Disability and Rehabilitation (DAR) Program

The mission of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health is to help build interdisciplinary collaborations and facilitate the sharing of knowledge to address global health challenges. It assists members in sharing their expertise across education, research, and service. It is dedicated to creating equity and reducing health disparities everywhere. CUGH promotes mutually beneficial, long-term partnerships between universities in resource-rich and resource-poor countries, developing human capital and strengthening institutions' capabilities to address these challenges. It is committed to translating knowledge into action.

The mission of CIRRIE is to facilitate the sharing of information between rehabilitation researchers in the U.S. and those in other countries. CIRRIE makes available to the disability community in the U.S. knowledge that has been found useful in other countries.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The GHSIG Research Committee has compiled a reference list from the last ten years in areas of interest to our membership. If you know of references not included on this list, please pass them along to Cheryl Kerfeld. We plan to make periodic updates of these lists. Due to copyright law, we are unable to provide pdfs of the journal articles. APTA members should have access to full-text articles in the Physical Therapy Journal.

Social Responsibility, Ethics, Advocacy, Policy

Global Health Education and Training

Global Health Research Methods and Innovations

Global Health Equity/Health Disparities

Global Health Practice

Archived publications

• Health Disparities 
• Cultural Competency
• Service Learning 
• Disability and Social Justice 
• Disability and Physical Activity
• Resource Guide for International Clinical Education in Physical Therapy
• Resource Directory and Guide for International Service Learning in Physical Therapy Education Programs
  
  

Principles of Islam: Applications to Health Care and Physical Therapy, by Aliya Chaudry, PT, MBA, JD