Behavioral sciences in the curriculum of medical undergraduates and health professionals at the University of Aden

MENA Dubai 2003 Abstract

Author Hassan Kasim Khan
Copy The introduction of Behavioral Sciences into the medical undergraduate community oriented curricula since the establishment of the Faculty in 1975, was a consequence of the emergence of a new understanding of health and illness in the early Seventies, Health is no longer seen as the mere absence of illness but rather as the presence of well-being. A shift in the comprehension of health that coincided with WHO Alma Ata declaration "Health for All" in 1978, where community primary health care-prevention gained emphasis and priority in the public health policies and programs.

As a result human behavior has moved into the focus of the three levels of prevention. Attempts to the understanding of socio-psychological influences on the three levels of prevention, as such why people become ill (primary prevention), how they respond to their illness (secondary prevention), and how they recover from a disease or adjust and cope with chronic or terminal illness emerged to be the topics of activities, research, and with gradual reflection in the training programs for health professionals.

The presentation describes and assesses the experiences of the multidimensional training of medical undergraduate students in behavioral sciences at the University of Aden Medical Faculty, and efforts to update the community-oriented medical curricula to the changing surrounding and developing social needs. It also discusses the overwhelming growing role of psychologists in developing and implementing integral training programs for all health professionals and at the different levels and disciplines.