Cambodian Immigrants And Health Care

In addition, relying on a doctor who does not share the same beliefs as one does can become fearful. Trusting the doctor for full treatment is necessary but when from a different cultural background it can prevent them on trusting them. According to a research article, Cross- Cultural Medicine a Decade Later, clearly states “when the basic belief structure of biomedicine and another set of health beliefs differs radically, problems and frustrations almost inevitably arise” (Barker, 1992, p.249). The central purpose of the research was to show whether or not health beliefs between patient and doctor differs will they find it difficult to interpret the symptoms and treatment variations to accommodate their beliefs. However, the doctor having faith in one’s health beliefs can sometimes be beneficial for the patients because they’ll be fully understood and not misjudged as being crazy. As stated by the author, for the article Chinese Health Beliefs of Older Chinese in Canada, “the findings support the previous prescriptive knowledge about Chinese health beliefs and illustrate the intergroup socio-cultural diversity that health practitioners should acknowledge in their practice” (Lai, 2009, 38). Like the Chinese, Hmong’s too first go to their shaman for traditional treatment rather than going to the doctor; to them an illness and their healing is more of a spiritual thing that

The continuous trauma that they endured has negatively affected the mental health and physical health of the population. Native Americans are at higher risk for depression, physical/sexual abuse, domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental health issues (McLeigh, 2010). Native American youth are three times more likely to commit suicide than the average population. Native Americans in general are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression and five times more likely to have alcoholism. Colonization not damaged natives mentally, but also brought harm to their physical health as Europeans brought diseases (measles, chicken pox, smallpox, etc) to America (McLeigh, 2010). In order for this population to be served to treat their many medical and mental health issues brought on by years of trauma, policies must be implemented to help Native Americans specifically. However, the reality is that natives mental health needs are often ignored (Gone, 2004). There have been policies that have attempted to meet the needs, but much more is needed. In the most recent action towards improving mental health services for natives, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 permanently gave authorization to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (Ross, Garfield, Brown, & Raghavan, 2015). This policy will be discussed and analyzed to examine further needs for services in this

Anne Fadiman’s novel, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, addresses key concerns regarding health and medicinal relationships with cultural beliefs. She challenges readers to consider what is known about western medicinal practices and beliefs, based on science, and recognize its effectiveness when paired with cultural understanding. This novel portrays some of the greatest medicinal and health challenges and cultural failures of western societies. There were several cultural competency themes integrated throughout the book, however, it surprised me at how distant western practices and the Hmong’s healing methods were at the beginning. It seemed as if it would be a stretch to form a connection between these two extremities,

While the language barrier became very obvious to them as the Hmong language has very long descriptions for even the simplest words, the cultural barrier lead to a cultural bias in regards of western medicine. Hmong patients expected to be released of the ER with any kind of medicine they wouldn’t need. In addition to that the Hmong had a negative attitude towards surgery or any other invasive treatments, as it was frowned upon in their culture. One aspect that made it even harder was that pregnant Hmong women preferred to stay at home till the really last moment, so that often Hmong children were born in the parking lot or the elevator. They distrusted the western medicine so much that they preferred not getting better by gratefully accepting the medicine and diagnosis to save their pride and dignity. Just as history showed, they would rather die than give up their pride.

“Medicine was religion. Religion was society. Society was medicine” (Fadiman, 1997). To the Hmong’s, this is a way of life. Everything in their culture is interrelated and represents a holistic view. As Americans, we try to incorporate the holistic approach into our health care system, but heavily rely on medications and science to treat illness.

The article Asian American Mental Health: What We Know And What We Don't Know by Stanley Sue was about Asian Americans and how they deal with their mental health. There are about 4% of Asians in the United States and because of this small percentage; it is hard for researchers to find people to help conclude their studies. What some have found out is that Asian Americans are offered mental health services but rarely use it. They find other ways such as asking their family for help or making an herbal remedy to help with their sickness. A researcher named Kuo has studies that show Asians are more depressed than Caucasians. According to a researcher named Leong the high depression rate is because Asians have problems with adjusting. I think what these researchers have studied is a great topic but it just needs more information. According to the article since it is such a low population of Asians in America it is hard to find people to do the research on. I think if they keep looking they can get more information about this topic.

In a perfect world, race, ethnicity and culture would have no negative effect on the medical care we receive, yet problems do arise and it affects the quality of care the patient receives. Language barrier, poor socioeconomic status, and poor health literacy also contribute to health care disparity. For Lia, it was more than her skin color, it was all of the above, her parents did not speak English and they were illiterate. They had trouble understanding the American healthcare system, had trouble or little interest in adjusting to or understanding the American culture. They didn’t work, which in addition to cross cultural misunderstanding, helped contribute to animosity between the Hmong and the host community, because some in the Merced area did not like or appreciate the fact that some Hmong did not work and relied on welfare to make ends meet. All these factors, contributed to the poor quality of

The United States is a melting pot of cultures from around the globe. Many immigrants acclimate to American culture and customs while retaining many of their native culture and customs. However, much of their culture places these immigrants at risk for health disparities. Hispanics are the largest and fastest growing racial and ethnic in the United States (cardiosmart.org, 2014). According to CDC.gov (2004), compared to non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics experienced chronic liver disease 62% more, diabetes 41% more, HIV 168% more and cancer of the cervix 152% and stomach 63% more for males and 150% more for females.

Across the country, a steady increase has been noted in the number of patients presenting to emergency departments for psychiatric complaints (Zun, 2014). Patients also attempt to use their primary care doctors to treat their mental illnesses. The mental health care options for these patients are extremely limited, especially for minority populations such as African Americans and Hispanics. One out of four adults in America suffers from some form of mental illness, yet only one out of three of those affected receives treatment (Safran, 2009). Furthermore, patients are routinely misdiagnosed, receive poor quality of care, receive care from providers who have no understanding of their cultures and values, or are not even able to receive care in the first place (Sanchez, 2012).

The DSM-5s' inclusion of the Cultural Formation Interview (CFI) has positive cultural care implications as it expanded cultural considerations and enabled greater provision of more individualised care by reducing racial and ethnic disparities in treatment (Halter, Rolin-Kenny, Dzurec, and Cox, 2013). “The CFI follows a person-centered approach to cultural assessment designed to avoid stereotyping, in that each individual’s cultural knowledge affects how he or she interprets illness experience and guides how he or she seeks help” (APA, 2013, p.

This may seem beneficial for Asian Americans at first; however, the model minority myth is actually detrimental to many segments of the population. This is especially true of recent immigrant Asian Americans. These individuals become deprived of resources because they are expected to have the same level of success as Asian Americans who have already lived in the U.S. for generations. Even in academia, the model minority myth causes Asian Americans to be understudied and misunderstood. Because Asian Americans are perceived to be successful and well-integrated individuals, Lee et al. (2001) show how there is “not enough research” that investigates Asian American mental health (160). In other words, even though some current data show higher rates of mental illness among Asian Americans, the model minority myth has distracted scholars from studying Asian American mental health. Thus, to ensure that Asian

In modern medicine, alternative therapies are poorly understood and studied. The preference for alternative therapies, and herbal medicine were indicated, and the fear of relinquishing information regarding these practices were almost paralyzing. It seemed as though they were ashamed to admit to cultural healing practices, and did not divulge information to practitioners regarding their usage. The cultural disconnect was present as alternative/complimentary medicines are valued as a culture, and “modern” practitioners cast judgment on their usage. This perceived stigma additionally limited the information shared by the cultural participants with modern medical treatments, potentially causing additional harm, as some herbals are potentially toxic.

In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Lia’s health complications could have been prevented or alleviated if the doctors had taken the cultural differences, cultural belief and practices of the Hmong community into account. While doctors in this book had received a Western type of foundation in terms of their medical preparation, this book demonstrated that how the life of a patient could have been improved when he/she is examined holistically.

Asian Americans are always shown to have a relatively low rate of substance abuse among all the ethnic groups in the US (Kim, Ziedonis, & Chen, 2007). In fact, studies suggest that Asian American youth are more vulnerable for emotional and social difficulties than youth of other races or ethnicities (Wong et al. 1998). As a group of immigrants, Asian American youth often face acculturation stressors like low self-esteem, high depression and anxiety and social isolation, and more and more studies have reported various behavior problems among Asian American youth, like gang activities (Zhang, 2002), a rapid increase in juvenile crime (Le, 2002) and a significant increase in violence.

Asian American parents believe in keeping many of their issue within the family which makes them reluctant to seek services. Because of this culture believe, Asian Americans utilize mental health services at a lower rate compared to other Americans (Sue, 1994). Socially sanctioned claims concerning Asian American's social character or integrity helps to explain why they don't utilize services as often as other Americans. Counselors can work to lessen the effects of racism and discrimination that have impacted Americans by expanding their knowledge of discriminations experiences of Asian American's and