While hundreds of BYU-Hawaii students now go on individual internships each summer, a much smaller number participate in mentored projects such as the one this year where five international students and three faculty members are producing a case-based multimedia training tool for mental health workers with one of the top medical schools in Brazil.
On September 14 the following students and faculty reported to BYU-Hawaii President Steven C. Wheelwright and Vice President of Academics Dr. Keith Roberts on their accomplishments in Brazil:
C. Roberto Guzman, a senior information systems major and instructional design and development (IDD) minor from Guayaquil, Ecuador, and his wife, Abigail Guzman, a senior political science major from Nelson, New Zealand; Everton Santos, a senior business management major from Porto Alegre, Brazil, and his wife, Rebeca Santos, a sophomore TESOL major who is also from Porto Alegre; and Marina Martinelli, a senior international cultural studies communications major from Brasilia, Brazil; Dr. Peter Chan, an IDD professor in the School of Education; his wife, Joyce Tan, a lecturer in English language and religion; and Dr. Sean Ransom, professor of clinical psychology.
The eight-person team sponsored by the BYU-Hawaii School of Education spent from June 26-August 7 in Porto Alegre — the sixth-largest city in Brazil, which is in the far southern state of Rio Grande do Sul that borders on Argentina and Uruguay, a place the BYU-Hawaii team found "freezing cold," said one. They worked closely with the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sol (PUCRS), one of the top five medical schools in the country, as well as the Ministry of Health and other agencies, to produce the case-based multimedia training package.
Dr. Chan explained that interest from Brazil grew out of a presentation he made several years ago about an analogous mentored project BYU-Hawaii students completed to help train rural obstetrics medical practitioners in Mongolia; and Robert Guzman noted the group picked mental health issues because "four of the top five diseases in the world for those 18-45" fall in that category, according to the World Health Organization. "In Brazil, these diseases affect about 22% of the population, and approximately 60% of them go untreated," he said.
Guzman also explained the group videotaped "real cases" or actual interviews with psychosis and depression patients to produce video ethnographies that are juxtaposed with transcriptions and professional analyses in the multimedia package that can be delivered by disc or Internet.
"These were not scripted," Dr. Chan emphasized. "In the past they had dramatizations." Guzman added that "it was a lot of work," and that Rebeca Santos transcribed and translated all of the interviews into English. The final product, however, will be in Portuguese.
"It was great teamwork," said Martinelli, a student worker in the BYU-Hawaii Media Production Center who shot and edited much of the video in Brazil. "I was worried about how the patients would feel about being taped," she continued, "but we managed to do it, and we were always very respectful to everyone." She also noted that from her anthropology classes she's learned even if people "pretend you're not there" and become comfortable with the cameras, "they always change their attitude. One lady, for example, took one hour to get ready because she knew we were going to film; and the doctor tried to look better than usual."
Santos, who helped coordinate logistics and interaction with the PUCRS team, said there were a lot of challenges. "We had to sit down first and do a protocol statement [to determine] what's going to happen first, step-by-step." He added they also had a "hard time scheduling appointments with doctors and patients," and everybody noted the pace of work between the BYU-Hawaii group and the Brazilians was different.
Dr. Ransom described the project as "a wonderful, special experience." He said he is collaborating with his Brazilian counterpart at PUCRS on a scholarly paper "that hopefully we're going to publish both in Brazil and the U.S.," and he added that "we'll get students involved in that as well."
Dr. Dinarte A. Prietto Ballester, PUCRS professor of psychiatry and project director, emailed that the collaboration was also "very valuable in terms of the direct contribution to improve the training of health professionals in Brazil with an innovative instructional method." He added he has already presented them at a meeting, and plans to do revisions and field tests.
"The students of BYU-Hawaii made a great and unique contribution to the success of this first step of the project. They are properly skilled to the tasks assigned and worked with a high level of ethical spirit," he continued. "The interaction between both teams, especially the Brazilian and BYU-Hawaii students, was friendly and helpful for everybody."
Joyce Tan reported the group took the time in Brazil to share the gospel. "Brazil is awesome. On Sunday there were so many investigators," and also gave a "full-house packed fireside." She added the interns also took in a soccer match and sampled Brazilian barbecue.
In response, President Wheelwright recommended several feedback and formatting methods for the training materials "to help make it more likely they will use it at the other end." He also suggested they consider using an "instruct, inspire and motivate" approach for the end-users.
Dr. Chan replied that the Brazilian team is still working on their end of the project. "They do have ownership, and the whole time their students were working with us. Right now, they are continuing the development process," which, he estimated, should be finished by the end of the year.
"This is terrific. I think this is a great project," President Wheelwright said.
Photos, (upper left, left-right): Dr. Sean Ransom, Joyce Tan and Dr. Peter Chan; (bottom): the Brazil mentoring group with (front row, l-r) Marina Martinelli, Everton and Rebeca Santos; (standing, l-r) VP of Academics Dr. Keith Roberts, Dr. Sean Ransom, Abigail and Roberto Guzman, BYU-Hawaii President Steven C. Wheelwright, Dr. Peter Chan, Joyce Tan and Academic Internship Director Meli Lesuma (right)