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Researcher Leads International Health Efforts in West Africa

Dr. Reide says volunteers or contributors to the Ghana medical mission can contact her at:
(313) 577-2484 or
(313) 660-1040.

Mothers in Ghana, West Africa regularly forego prenatal care because cultural and religious traditions urge them to keep their pregnancies secret to prevent sabotage against their unborn children.

“These customs are a real barrier to providing adequate health care. In addition to poverty and lack of access to care, we are also dealing with longstanding customs and superstitions,” said Mona Forbes Reide, PhD. Dr. Reide is working with the Ghanaian National Ministry of Health to train health care workers in Africa and provide better education related to maternal and child health. She is a research assistant in the Center for Healthcare Effectiveness Research at WSU and is president of International Humanitarian Services, a notfor- profit health research and promotion group.

Dr. Reide has been working with Ghana’s health ministry since 1992 and has been organizing medical missions there since 1998. She is interested in health-seeking behaviors of mothers and asserts that medical care must be provided in a culturally sensitive manner in order to be effective. For instance, many people in Africa suffer from serious iron deficiencies, but cultural dietary restrictions prevent them from eating okra, which grows abundantly and is rich in iron. “Even basic nutrition isn’t a simple thing in a land with more than 100 languages and as many cultural variables,” Dr. Reide notes. “We have to educate without ignoring important belief systems.”

With a group of medical and humanitarian volunteers from the United States, Dr. Reide will return to Ghana in the spring and summer of 2002 to train community health care providers, nurses and birth attendants in simple primary care practices. With one physician for every 68,000 people, volunteer community workers administer most health care. During Dr. Reide’s last month-long outreach, 100 people received medical training and 2,000 people received free medical treatment. She expects their mobile clinic to help at least that many people again.

The team’s lead physician is Dr. Rockelle Rogers, a WSU alum and graduate of the School of Medicine’s post-baccalaureate program. The training services are coordinated by Dr. Reide and her husband, Jerome, an attorney who has a PhD in political science and a background in education. The couple has team-taught international conflict resolution classes in WSU’s Masters of Dispute Resolution Program, Center for Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs.

Dr. Reide earned her undergraduate and doctoral degrees from WSU and served as a research affiliate with the University of Ghana at Legon’s Institute for Statistical, Social and Economic Research during her dissertation work. She was recently honored with the Ida B. Wells Humanitarian Award from Region III of the NAACP. She has also been awarded a Wayne State research grant to conduct a pilot study on malaria treatment in Ghana. Parallel work is underway in Nigeria, and Dr. Reide hopes the two-country study will allow her to design an intervention model for malaria control.

This work has received the blessing and praise of the National Minister of Health and the University of Ghana.

Notes

Honors

Rounds

Continuing Medical Education

Women's Health Lecture Series