Archive

Perspectives in Primary Care features writing from practitioners, activists, and community members representing organizations, practices, and institutions across the United States and around the world.

Insights

Where Do We Go Now? A Question in Decolonizing Practice of Clinical Psychology in the Global South

Decolonization is a broad term referring to attempting to undo or rectify the consequences of colonialism. The repercussions of colonialism are widespread, influencing many, if not all, facets of life in countries of the Global South. As a result, there are numerous possible strategies to accomplish the goal of decolonization across various disciplines. In mental health disciplines, discussions about decolonization are "en vogue” in academia. Yet despite an abundance of research, translating this knowledge into ...
Advocacy

Relating Place, History, and Neighborhood Context to Mental Health: A Baltimore Case Study

Mental health is a growing public health priority. While people from racial/ethnic minority groups generally report a similar prevalence of mental health conditions compared to the rest of the U.S. population, they have
Advocacy

P is for Period and P is for Power: Attending to Menstrual Hygiene in Rural India

“Can I take a bath during my period?” comes a feeble voice from one corner of the classroom. I struggle to put the words together but am afraid to ask again lest the enquirer retreat. “I missed my exam because I was on my period that day, and the cloth I use often leaks and soils my clothes,” someone else says from another corner. Slowly the entire room fills with questions that I never imagined existed. I wonder if we have different centuries for different people.
Personal Perspectives

Behind the Wall I Escape

Behind the wall of unemployment, I escape. I have a right to work. I have a Law Degree and a Life Coaching Certificate. How do I begin? How can I work professionally and who will employ me? Even though I see many barriers ahead, I say yes to every training opportunity that is offered to me. I speak up whenever I have the chance. I have completed intercultural dialogue training to become a facilitator in that area. I am also writing again with Fiction at the Friary. There is no barrier there. With speaking and writing, I ...
Stories

The Various Faces of Trauma

Trigger warning: Parts of this piece may be triggering. Please take the time and space to look after yourself and seek help. A few years ago, while I was packing for an upcoming move, I came across my old Pakistani passport. As I opened it, my 16-year-old self looked back at me, with the words “married” and “housewife.” I was a child bride. I am now in my 30s. I broke free from that child marriage a decade ago and built a wonderful new life of freedom for myself and my daughters. ...
Stories

The Salutary Impact of Listening to the Trauma Story

I entered the Brighton Marine Public Health Center in Massachusetts in December 1981, where hundreds of Indochinese refugees were being medically screened after the fall of Saigon. I’ll never forget my first patient—a middle-aged Cambodian woman with major hearing loss. During the exam, she told me that her hearing loss began after being beaten unconscious by the Khmer Rouge soldiers and left for dead on a pile of the bodies of her relatives. At the time, I knew nothing about the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. I had no training on the impact of extreme violence on ...
Advocacy

Centering the Woman in Maternity Care

Few human experiences match the intensity of stress, pain, exertion, and emotional turmoil as labor. The mortality risk in pregnancy is present for all, though Black women in the United States are
Stories

Trauma-Informed, Holistic Health Care: A Journey from Patient to Advocate

PurpLE Health Foundation is a non-profit organization in New York City, which invests in the physical, mental, and financial health of survivors of gender-based violence. PurpLE Health Foundation’s signature program is its collaboration with
Advocacy

Whose Trauma? De-Colonizing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Refugee Mental Health Frameworks

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma needs in the Arab region The unprecedented political violence that swept the Arab region in the last century, from the Nakba of the Palestinain people to the wars in Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, have ...
1 2 3 4