A health care and alcohol consumption prevention program proposal for Mayan-speaking teenagers: an initial approximation based on interculturality

Abstract

It is a fact that adolescents of indigenous communities in our country represent a sector of the population with severe deficiency on health, education and rights, among other important needs. Health problems such as malnutrition, alcoholism, drug addiction, hiv / aids and suicides are often in this population as the main causes of mortality. To attend these issues effectively and urgently requires necessarily a break away from the hegemonic medical model and approach communities from another view, from an intercultural approach that includes understanding and respect for the language, forms of communication, values and beliefs as a social organization, and rescue their therapeutic resources. In this context is presented the program of comprehensive health for adolescents in vulnerable conditions attention ( paisav ). This program has as general purpose to prevent and intervene in risk behaviors that have been identified with the highest incidence in 300 high school students in three high-risk communities with Mayan-speaking population in the eastern region of the State of Yucatan. The intervention will be implemented in form of group workshops in the classrooms of the school in evening classes twice a week for four months. Audiovisual aids, videos, slides and music will be used, as well as brochures and various participatory development. It concludes with a series of recommendations from a first approach with a pilot implementation of the program with 30 students, 15 men and 14 women, which belong to the High School 69 of Xocén, Valladolid, which are being integrated into subsequent application programs to improve the work from an intercultural perspective on Maya adolescent speakers.