The Role of Anthropolgy In Global Health Policy

There ever-growing need for a clear starting point in understanding the clinical significance of cultural and social factors in how health and ill-health are manifested, and how the problems can be prevented and alleviated. From distributing contraception in the developing world, to mental health in the developed world, anthropology reaches into all aspects of global health by taking a cross-cultural perspective, focusing on the human, as opposed to biological, side of illness and disease. Dr Helman will be looking at what anthropology can bring to bear on global health policy.

“Dr Cecil Helman is many things: old-fashioned general practitioner, psychiatrist, cultural anthropologist, storyteller, poet and artist – and all this comes together in ‘Suburban Shaman’, a beautifully written, devastatingly honest, and often very funny, account of an audacious and adventurous life."

Oliver Sacks

The ever-growing need for a clear starting point in understanding the clinical significance of cultural and social factors in how health and ill-health are manifested, and how the problems can be prevented and alleviated. From distributing contraception in the developing world, to mental health in the developed world, anthropology reaches into all aspects of global health by taking a cross-cultural perspective, focusing on the human, as opposed to biological, side of illness and disease. Dr Helman will be looking at what anthropology can bring to bear on global health policy.

Dr Cecil G Helman is Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Sciences and Law at Brunel University, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences at UCL. He is one of the leading international experts on medical anthropology, cross-cultural health care, and the cultural dimensions of health, illness and medical care.

Dr Cecil Helman is author of the highly acclaimed Suburban Shaman: Tales from Medicine’s Frontline, and Culture, Health and Illness. He was a Visiting Fellow in Social Medicine and Health Policy at Harvard Medical School, where he did research on patients' perceptions of psychosomatic disorders, and lectured on clinically-applied medical anthropology.

In 2004 he received the Career Achievement Award off the American Anthropological Association’s Society for Medical Anthropology, and in 2005 the Lucy Mair Medal for Applied Anthropology of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Irelan

Following on from our last talk by Dr Alex Van Tulleken on his Medicine Men Go Wild series, examining indigenous medicines, this is sure to be a fascinating talk. Entry is free and open to all!

Tuesday, 26th February 7 pm

Wilkins Old Refectory,
Wilkins Building (the Quad)
Gower Street

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