CHINA: Facilitation workshop participants rug up against the cold outside the Du Fu thatched cottage in Chengdu.
Auckland facilitator Dr Dale Hunter is helping China change its medical education philosophy.
Last month Dr Hunter led a five-day training workshop on facilitation in Chengdu, China, for 20 Chinese specialists in eyecare under the auspices of Orbis, a non-aligned, non-profit global development organisation. Orbis works to preserve and restore
sight mainly by training local partners to prevent and treat blindness.
Shanghai-based Orbis senior programme manager Dr Fei Long, who organised the workshop, says a significant number of health systems in Western countries are moving from a professional approach to the community development and self-care approach, and from curative care to disease prevention and health promotion.
"Under the pressure of market economics and increasing unemployment, China is reforming its outdated medical education philosophy in favour of Western models,'' says Dr Long.
"People start to recognise that good health is determined not just by healthcare provisions, but also by the eradication of poverty, improved education and local social economic status and strong community participation.''
Orbis has set up the Chinese Training Network, a four-year national training project from 2003-2007, to spread advanced education and training models in China. Dr Hunter's workshop in Chengdu, The Art of Facilitation _ Creating new ways of working together, was part of this project.
The workshop was adapted from facilitation training Dr Hunter has led throughout New Zealand and in Australia, the UK and US through Zenergy, a New Zealand company of which she is a founding director.
