Exploring Cultural Implications From Hmong Perspective

III. (Credibility Statement): You guys are probably like why should I listen to this guy, “he 's probably making this up or something” but hey why would i lie about my culture.

For many Hmong people, immigrating to the United States of America is a large form of stress as it involves adapting to new cultures and new environments. In the documentary, the Split Horn, a Hmong shaman and his family immigrates to the United States to pursue a better life for themselves. The immense change from living in the countryside of Laos to moving to Wisconsin, America affects the family greatly. As the Hmong shaman tries to preserve his ancient traditions and culture, his children embrace the American one, finding partners and converting to Christianity, not necessarily following Hmong guidelines. When Paja Thao, the Hmong shaman’s children go their separate ways, abandoning Hmong culture, Paja falls into a state of depression. The understanding of depression in Hmong culture contrasts with the biomedical model of health drastically, resulting in consequences such as the impotence to receive medical assistance, lack of knowledge and education, resulting in untreated diseases such as chronic illnesses.

Throughout this ethnography about the cultural group known as the Hmong, there are several anthropological concepts that can be found due to differences in culture and lack of understanding between the Hmong and the Americans. Two concepts that are prevalent throughout are medical anthropology and ethnomedcine. For example, Lia’s mother, Foua, was restricted to specific foods because of her culture, which were criticized by the medical staff which shows the dissonance between American and Hmong culture. This is a perfect example of ethnomedicine, in that the medical staff at Merced Community Medical Center expressed a completely different way of administering medicine with vastly different medications than that of the Hmong. This idea of ethnomedicine is explained later on and is constantly seen throughout the novel.

The Hmong have withstood the test of time against all odds. Over the course of many centuries “the Hmong have responded to persecution and to pressure to assimilate by either fighting or migrating” (p. 13). They have been continuing on with this lifestyle for so long it seems in be a genetic trait. Even while relocating their home over the centuries, their culture, tradition, and values remained the same. The Hmong “do not like to take orders…they do not like to lose…they would rather flee, fight, or die than surrender…they are not intimidated by being outnumbered” (p. 17). This predisposition of theirs can be directly applied towards their relationship with the American health system. Being on the forefront of Western “modern” medicine it’s

“It felt as if there was this layer of Saran Wrap or something between us….So we couldn’t really accomplish what we were trying to do, which was to take care of Lia” (47-48). The cultural barrier between Lia Lee’s parents and the medical staff at Merced Community Medical Center (MCMC) was recognized equally by both parties throughout the many interactions they had. From Lia’s birth to her final release from MCMC a recurring theme has been reproduction, specifically its difference between Hmong and American traditions. The several occurrences between pregnant Hmong women and the medical staff at MCMC are demonstrative of the language and custom barriers between the two cultural groups. Standards of parental care are also different within the two cultures and both Hmong and American standards affected Lia’s health. Emotions and understandings towards children born or obtaining disability had both parties treat Lia differently throughout her varying stages of being medically treated. The different cultures pertaining specifically to reproduction are main factors that shaped Lia’s overall medical treatment through miscommunication, varying standards of parenthood, and viewpoints towards disability.

The Hmong culture is one of proud people who fend for them selves. The Hmong people take great pride in raising their children. Their people have resisted assimilation and change throughout their history. The new language, culture and just functioning in daily life in America was a challenge to the Hmong community.

The Hmong Culture is very interesting. Approximately 25,000 Hmong reside in Fresno, California. In the Hmong culture the men must pay a price for their wives. Usually the price for a bride often ranges from $3,000 to $10,000. Traditionally, the groom’s side of the family must go to the bride’s home and ask her parents for permission to be wed. After both sides reach an agreement, then the next day a feast is held to celebrate their engagement.

My family immigrated to the United States as Hmong refugees after the Secret War with the Pathet Laos. When my parents came to the States in 1978, my family switched religion from Shaman to Christianity. My family originally settled in San Diego, California for several years before they decided to move to Fresno, California to live closer with relatives and friends.

To begin, I learned so much about the Hmong culture, I feel embarrassed how little I knew about them, and what they went through; I have so much more appreciation for them. Coming from a future nurse, I am well aware of the topic “culturally competent”. However, after reading this book I realized how important it actually is to be aware, knowledgeable, and sensitive to those of different cultures. The patient and the patient’s family should be center of the care, with the health care providers having assessed he patient’s needs and wishes. I strong feel that everyone entering the health care field should be formally trained on what it actually means to be culturally competent. If the I health care providers in this book would have been more

Adjusting to the Hmong’s new homeland has not been easy for them. Traditional Hmong beliefs regarding healing and curing of disease differ greatly from those of the Western culture. Western medicine relies heavily on a medical process in which a specific technique corrects a specific problem by treatment. Health is the absence of disease and measures the individual’s adaptation to an environment. On the other hand, Hmong believe illness is associated with spiritual causes.

Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down addresses experiences and decisions we may all relate to in some degree through the point of view of a journalist. It offers a different perspective and insight that has been used as an acceptable resource on cultural competence. As a passive reader, our understanding of cultural competence has grown more humanistic, because we feel the healthcare provider’s frustration and their concerns becoming more salient, while we see how a breakdown in communication, can have heartbreaking results as felt by the Lees. I think the book’s by-product is a lesson in cultural competence that can educate health care, but it is also a story that is much more dynamic as it reflects upon the sociopolitical struggle of the Hmong Chinese, xenophobia, and reminds us of a dark period of time in American history, the Vietnam War. This story, sadly, highlights the struggle of refugees, their decision to assimilate or not, which is unfortunately still relevant to this day. At some points in the book, I was immediately making connections between the Hmong Chinese and the current crisis of Syrian refugees of today. This story nonetheless is a riveting account of the life of Lia Lee and her family struggling to understand their daughter’s epilepsy through Western medicine, and the compassionate, but overtaxed providers of her care, which give us an honest glimpse into the medical world.

This book, as narrated by the author, Anne Fadiman, is about the true story of the life of an epileptic Hmong child named Lia Lee, and her refugee family’s interactions with the American health care system. This child endures agonizing grand mal seizures which ultimately and unfortunately, as a result, led her to become vegetative for the rest of her life. However, the central idea of this story is not entirely about Lia’s severe epilepsy, but how cultural boundaries had prompted to the obstruction of her treatment. Compliance had a major effect on Lia’s life between the doctors and her family, in which this argumentative battle is a way of implicitly revealing the differences in Western and Eastern medication, how the patient is perceived

This study was a qualitative study utilizing the ecological framework and the CBPR method. These approaches were appropriate for the Hmong population for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the Hmong are patrilineal and patriarchal. The current literature cited in this article reports that Hmong women have a higher risk for health problems due to low socioeconomic status, deficiency of education, low English proficiency, refusal of the biomedical model of preventative care, and gender roles in Hmong culture. These factors demonstrate that there are many influences on health seeking behaviors and the ecological framework was an appropriate framework utilized for this study.

One’s own health changes from one second to the next. Akron Children’s Hospital is a local facility, however, we see so many cultures on a daily occurrence. If we are not careful we may offend the patients own culture, in turn a patient’s health may be impacted. Akron Children’s Hospital has multiple departments directly related to cultural guidelines, these departments directly address the day to day issues that we may come upon related to cultural difference, as to not offend our patients

Gaining awareness and learning about culture in healthcare paves the way for a more peaceful society which extends to a happy society.