Global to Local, with support from The Commonwealth Fund, has launched a new resource offering guidance for health care delivery organizations, community-based organizations and others to support application of lessons from global health to improve primary health care in the U.S. While these lessons will apply broadly, primary audiences for the resource and implementation guide are those caring for populations that have historically not been well served by the health system. Primary health care” is an internationally developed concept that extends far beyond delivery of health services, and that emphasizes community empowerment and multisectoral collaboration to improve health and health equity broadly.
Since its founding in 2010, Global to Local has looked abroad for ideas and inspiration to guide development of its programs in South King County. Along the way, G2L has been privileged to interact with many others with a shared interest in incorporating global learning to strengthen their work in the United States. However, despite broad acknowledgment that all health is global, and that we have much to learn from the rest of the world, there is little existing guidance for community-based organizations or health care delivery systems on HOW to go about identifying and implementing lessons from global health. Along with a panel of experts, Global to Local developed a framework for global learning that outlines key steps that organizations can take to identify and adopt promising approaches from other countries. In addition to an extensive collection of resources to support identification and adoption of effective strategies and programs from throughout the world, the guide includes a self-reflection tool to help organizations determine how prepared they are to implement global learning, and a compilation of suggested activities that can stimulate progress.
The Global Learning for U.S. Primary Health Care resource and implementation guide can be found here.