A Critical-Holistic Paradigm for an Interdependent World

Abstract

The health-disease continuum and the current health paradigm neglect the fundamental descriptors of community welfare, including nutrition or malnutrition, equity or poverty, and sustainable development or underdevelopment. Current practices have a patient-obey-physician approach that assigns a passive role to patients and inhibits dialogue with community leaders. An alternative critical-holistic perspective can help universities overcome the limits of individual disciplines and current practices. The critical-holistic health, nutrition, and development promotion model offers a productive alternative paradigm for university-community partnerships on health, nutrition, and development issues. The model has been used successfully in education, research, and practice in Brazil and the United States and enhances the linkages among individual, societal, and institutional responsibilities. It is especially valuable in communities where social aspects such as low incomes and contaminated water supplies call for dialogue between health professionals and the community that leads to participatory action.

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