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A Critical Reflection of My Skills regarding working with Communities within Global

Health Contexts

Student’s name

Institutional affiliation

Date
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As a global health practitioner, I had the opportunity to conduct a workshop on mental

health for women with disabilities in Accra, Ghana. The workshop aimed to educate and

empower women with disabilities to take control of their mental health by providing them with

the necessary tools and resources. The workshop was held in collaboration with a local disability

advocacy group, and we provided a safe space for women to share their experiences and learn

from one another (Martiskainen, 2017). As I facilitated the workshop on mental health for

women with disabilities, I observed that some women in attendance experienced discrimination

and social exclusion due to their disabilities. Some had also struggled with mental health issues

that had not been adequately addressed. This highlighted to me the importance of engaging with

community organizations to ensure their needs are met and access to appropriate mental health

care.

As the workshop facilitator, I ensured the workshop was accessible and inclusive for all

attendees. This involved ensuring that the venue was accessible, providing interpretation services

for attendees who were deaf, and providing materials in accessible formats (Ryu & Shim, 2020).

I also ensured the workshop content was relevant and culturally appropriate for the local context.

Regarding personal responsibility, I took a hands-on approach to ensure that the workshop was

inclusive and accessible to all participants (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). For instance, I liaised with

the local disability advocacy group to ensure that the venue was wheelchair accessible and to

provide sign language interpretation services. I also ensured that materials such as handouts and

presentations were in accessible formats, such as large print or Braille. These steps helped make

the workshop a safe and welcoming space for women with disabilities.

My reflection focuses on my leadership and engagement skills in a specific global health

context. Specifically, I will reflect on my ability to engage with and work effectively with
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community organizations in a low-resource setting. This reflection focuses on my leadership and

engagement skills, particularly in community engagement. In this workshop, I was able to build

relationships with the local disability advocacy group and engage with them to create a tailored

and culturally sensitive approach to mental health (World Health Organization, 2019). Reflecting

on this experience allows me to identify areas of strength in my leadership and engagement skills

and areas for improvement.

I will structure my reflection using the Gibbs reflective cycle (Adeani et al., 2020). This

model allows me to identify the key themes and issues during the workshop and reflect on how

these relate to my leadership and engagement skills. This model effectively breaks down the

experience and identifies specific themes and issues that emerged during the workshop. This will

allow me to reflect on my leadership and engagement skills and how they relate to community

engagement in global health contexts (Martiskainen, 2017).

In my reflection, I will delve deeper into my experiences and analyze my initial thoughts

and insights to understand my leadership and engagement skills better (Gipson et al., 2017). I

will explore how I can use my experiences to develop these skills further and apply them in

future global health contexts. As I reflect on my experience, I will delve deeper into my thoughts

and feelings at the time of the workshop. For instance, I will reflect on the challenges I faced in

creating an inclusive and accessible workshop and how I overcame these challenges. I will also

explore how I can apply the lessons I learned in future global health contexts and continue to

develop my leadership and engagement skills to be more effective in engaging with

communities. This deeper reflection will help me better understand my strengths and weaknesses

as a leader in global health contexts.

One of the challenges I faced during the workshop was the limited resources available to

the local disability advocacy group (Oti-Boadi, 2017). This meant we had to be creative to

ensure the workshop was accessible and inclusive for all attendees. This experience challenged

me to think outside the box and develop innovative solutions to ensure the workshop succeeded.

Another challenge I faced during the workshop was ensuring that the content was culturally

appropriate and sensitive to the needs of the participants. As a non-local, I had to rely on the

guidance and input of the local disability advocacy group to ensure that the content was relevant

and meaningful to the participants. I had to navigate the complex interplay of cultural norms and

beliefs about mental health to provide an inclusive and culturally sensitive workshop.

Another challenge I faced was ensuring the workshop was accessible to all participants.

This included addressing the unique needs of participants with various disabilities, such as

physical or hearing impairments. To overcome these challenges, I worked closely with the local

disability advocacy group to ensure that the venue was wheelchair accessible and that sign

language interpretation services were provided (Adu-Gyamfi, 2017). I also ensured the materials

were in accessible formats, such as large print and Braille. These challenges highlighted the

importance of community engagement and the need to work collaboratively with local

organizations and stakeholders to meet the community's needs. It also highlighted the need for

ongoing education and awareness-raising on issues related to disability and mental health in

global health contexts. As a leader in global health, it is important to recognize and address these

challenges to ensure that we are providing meaningful and impactful interventions accessible to

all members of the community.

In my reflection, I will draw on relevant theoretical standpoints, research, ethical

principles, SDGs, policy, and practice in global health (Barnes, 2019). I will also link these to
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broader social and political issues to demonstrate how they have helped me understand the core

emerging issues in the workshop. One of the theoretical frameworks that I relied on during the

workshop was the social model of disability. This framework emphasizes that disability is not

solely a medical issue but a social construct created by societal attitudes and barriers. Utilizing

this framework, I could design the workshop in an empowering way that focused on the

participant's strengths and abilities rather than their impairments.

Additionally, I drew on research related to mental health and disability in low- and

middle-income countries. This research has shown that individuals with disabilities are at

increased risk for mental health issues due to poverty, social exclusion, and limited access to

healthcare services. Understanding this research helped me design a workshop addressing the

specific mental health needs of women with disabilities in Accra. I also relied on the Sustainable

Development Goals (SDGs) as a guiding framework (Hashemi et al., 2017). In particular, SDG

3, which focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all, and SDG 10, which

aims to reduce inequalities, were particularly relevant to the workshop (Dhar, 2018). By aligning

the workshop with these SDGs, I was able to highlight the importance of mental health and

disability in the broader context of global health. These theoretical frameworks and research

findings helped me design a workshop grounded in evidence-based practices and addressed the

community's specific needs in a culturally sensitive and appropriate way.

Throughout my reflection, I utilized criticality to challenge my ideas and actions and

show how my experience supports or challenges existing knowledge (World Health

Organization, 2017). I also used criticality to analyze emerging insights and theories to

understand the core issues better. Reflecting on my experience conducting the workshop, I took a

critical approach to my assumptions and actions and the broader social and political issues
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surrounding mental health and disability in global health contexts (Martiskainen, 2017). One of

the key areas where I applied criticality was examining my assumptions and biases. For example,

I had to be mindful of my cultural assumptions and recognize that my Western-centric

perspective may not align with the experiences and beliefs of the participants (Oti-Boadi, 2017).

Through ongoing dialogue and reflection with the local disability advocacy group, I could

identify and challenge my assumptions and biases to provide a more culturally sensitive and

appropriate workshop.

I also applied criticality to the emerging insights and theories on mental health and

disability in global health (Retief & Letšosa, 2018). For example, I recognized that mental health

and disability are often marginalized in global health discourse and that there is a need for

greater attention and resources to be devoted to these issues (Deegan, 2018). By challenging the

dominant narratives surrounding global health, I was able to identify ways in which the

workshop could contribute to a more inclusive and equitable approach to global health. Finally, I

applied criticality to my actions and interventions during the workshop. For example, I reflected

on how I could have improved the accessibility of the workshop and identified areas where I

could have been more proactive in addressing the needs of participants with disabilities (Burlock,

2017). Through this critical reflection process, I identified areas for improvement and developed

strategies for addressing these issues in future interventions. Criticality was an important part of

my reflection process as it allowed me to challenge my assumptions, identify emerging issues

and theories, and improve the effectiveness and impact of my interventions in global health

contexts.

By the end of my reflection, I aim to have identified the key messages of what I have

learned and summarized these as conclusions or recommendations. These conclusions will be

based on my reflections and insights, and I will use the Gibbs reflective cycle to structure them.

Overall, I hope to better understand my leadership and engagement skills in the context of global

health and identify ways to improve these skills in the future.

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