Traditionally, A Common Hmong’S Custom Is That A Soul Can

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

Language barrier was a major factor that served to extend the boundary existing between the two cultures. Some of the utterances made by the doctors were interpreted right but were understood wrongly (Swartz 2). This resulted in a worsened discernment of the American doctors by the Lees and Hmong as an entity alike. In the case of an emergency, the Lees needed to contact an ambulance, but could not communicate with the hospital. This necessitated the involvement of their learned nephew, who would call an ambulance. The interpretation process would at times limit the effectiveness of the message intended by either party. For instance, when Lia was undergoing critical care in MCMC, the Lees needed to be comforted, a process which had to be done by an interpreter. Before the final discharge, miscommunication between Lia’s mother and the doctors had her think that the nurses disconnected medicine tubes off Lia in order to give it to some other patient; a mean act. In the same incident, Lia’s father was made to sign a letter of discharge for Lia, which would happen in two hours. However, he understood this as a letter to guarantee death in two

The doctors assuming the Lee were giving their daughter her medications, were surprised to not see levels of the medications in her blood. Dan Murphy who was one of Lia’s doctor questioned the parents and he learned that due to their cultural beliefs, Lia’s parents have not been administering her with the proper medicine. Where Lia’s mother believes she is doing the right thing for her daughter, Murphy has sympathy for the mother and told Fadiman “I remember having a little bit of awe of how differently we looked at the world”. A key feature of the Hmong is that they have no interest in being rule, do not like to be told what to do, and are rarely persuaded by the customs of other culture. The mistrust and open hostility between the medical staff and the Lee family seemed to overshadow Lia’s disease. Both side obviously loves Lia and wants her healthy but neither was willing to compromised and meet half way.

There are several hindrances that immigrant’s population encounter when they migrated to a new country. For sure, obtaining a good quality of health care is one of the most difficulties that the immigrants will be faced in the new country due to several reasons such as language barrier, cultural beliefs and lack of education. These elements could absolutely complicate the medical system. One of the immigrant population who began to migrate gradually to the United States in the 18th century is the Hmong. They arrived in the United States with their traditional customs. Hmong culture, in general, is entirely different from the way of life in the United States. In particularly, Hmong’s health care has completely different systems of health in the America. Their health care depends extremely on their traditional beliefs which are seeing illness as animism matter. On the other hand, the Western medical system is rationalism that means the medical system relies primarily on biomedical beliefs. As I result, the contrast between Hmong traditional beliefs and Western biomedical beliefs built a lack of understanding of both sides

Lias final seizure was a horrifying yet blameless conclusion to her extremely short life. At only four years old she went into an extremely violent seizure that lasted for hours. Nurses and doctors were unable to stop her seizing due to her size (Fadiman 143). When they were finally successful in stopping her seizure she had almost no brain activity left, and was declared brain dead and sent home to die, (Fadima 211). Following all of the previous events of her life it can be easily assumed that the Lees did not give Lia her medicine, or the doctors and MCMC complicated her regime, causing her symptoms to worsen, but that is not the case. Lia had her final seizure due to sepsis, not because she was epileptic. (Fadiman 147). The fact that her organs were shutting down was hidden by a lack of symptoms. Despite everyone finally doing what they needed to do, Lia’s fate had already been sealed at that point. The ultimate cause of her brain death was nobody 's fault at all, and it had nothing to do with culture, it was just an unfortunate accident.

Though American Indians are enjoying an independent public health system with above $3 billion funds provided by Congress annually for delivering healthcare services to them, still figure and facts on health status of American Indians reveal that they are facing many difficulties and have to suffer from diverse type of illness and disease at a misappropriate level. Since long it was identified by medical communities that there are wide spread diseases diabetes, alcoholism, tuberculosis, suicide, unintentional injuries, and other health conditions among American Indian and they are dying of these diseases at shocking rates (American Heart Association [AHA], 2010). Through this essay I want to discuss the healthcare status of American Indians in the perspective of their culture as how it impacted and lead to develop mistrust between amongst the medical community and American Indians.

Even though Foua and Nao Kao never completely understood the reasons for why they had to administer Lia with so many prescription drugs, they eventually participated in proper medication trainings with the social worker in order to comply and appease the doctor’s demands. Over time, Foua and Nao Kao were able to develop a good relationship with Lia’s doctors, with the assistance of the family’s social worker, Jeanine Hilt, in order to regain custody and comply with the medication regimen. This was a difficult concept for them to grasp, as the methods of the doctors were completely foreign to them, and they felt they had no control in what was happening to Lia who they, according to their cultural values, wanted to take complete responsibility

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman, is the story of two very different cultures lacking understanding for one another leading to a tragedy due to cultural incompetence. Today in America there are very many different cultures. Health care providers need to be aware of cultural diversity and sensitivity when caring for patients. If a health care provider is not sensitive towards a patient’s culture it can cause a relationship of mistrust to form, lead to barriers in the plan of care, and increase health care cost. The current guidelines to promote cultural competence in the clinical setting include completing a cultural diversity self-assessment, identify the need of the population served, evaluate barriers in the community and practice, educate staff to cultural diversities, schedule longer appointments, clarify limitations, and identify alternatives offered (Cash & Glass, 2014).

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

Anne Fadiman struggles to find the answer to who is responsible for Lia Lee’s health in her book, “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.” The book describes the clashing of both the medical community within Merced, California, and a Hmong refugee family, the Lees, cultural beliefs. The Lees daughter, Lia Lee, is plagued with a severe case of epilepsy, or qaug dab peg in Hmong, as a child and is administered to the Mercy Medical Center Merced, or MCMC, a hospital in Merced, California. The doctors there go through many struggles in order to work with the Lee family, as they are faced with cultural and language barriers that they must overcome in order to ensure Lia is in good health. The Lees do not feel that they are in the wrong, for their

We can see that there was a misunderstanding between the Lee’s and the doctor. Both parties explained the view on Lia’s case but from a biased perspective within their own culture. Lia's doctors strongly opinionated to treat her disease with medication, however her parents felt that being given medication would restrict with the spiritual healing given by a Hmong shaman.

The Lees believe that for an illness to be cured the soul has to be called back through the ritual sacrifice of animals such as chicken and pig. That is, they believe in the “Shamanistic ritual performed by a trix neeb in which an animal is sacrificed and its soul battered for the vagrant soul of a sick Person” (Fadiman, 1997, p.100). According to Lia's father Nao Kao “Sometimes the soul goes away but the doctors don’t believe it…The doctors can fix some sickness that involve the body and blood but for us Hmong some people get sick because of their soul, so they need spiritual things. With Lia it was good to do a little medicine and a little neeb” (Fadiman, 1997,p.100). The medical care that the doctors at Merced were providing was without animal sacrifices therefore the Lee’s believe that it could not make their daughter well.

“In the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”, Anne Fadiman explores the subject of cross cultural misunderstanding. This she effectively portrays using Lia, a Hmong, her medical history, the misunderstandings created by obstacles of communication, the religious background, the battle with modernized medical science and cultural anachronisms. Handling an epileptic child, in a strange land in a manner very unlike the shamanistic animism they were accustomed to, generated many problems for her parents. The author dwells on the radically different cultures to highlight the necessity for medical communities to have an understanding of the immigrants when treating them.

Healthcare is an ever changing entity with an ever changing population of clients. In current day 2016, the United Sates has become a melting pot of many different cultural backgrounds, which has led to changes within the system to accommodate the patient base. Unfortunately, not all changes have been able to effectively reach any and all persons from every background. We still see language and cultural barriers that have direct correlation to the inability to seek healthcare and or the ability to change cultural perspectives to ensure healthy lifestyles. Within this paper, the health of American Indian and Alaskan Native populations will be discussed along with the barriers to care and the

The biggest thing I've noted, not only about the Hmong, but also concerning other ethnicities and cultures is that there is a lack of substantial research focused on specific health concerns, and treatment on seemingly anyone that isn't a straight white male. Many factors can of course contribute to this for instance in the Hmong's case, and in the Lee's case, the clash between cultures and health practices can often make it hard for research to be done if an illness is only found and treated by Western medicine as a last stop and only once it has progressed.I was surprised to learn in the article "Health Issues for the Hmong Population in the US" that the "Hmong populations present signs and symptoms of cancer at an earlier age than the general