Cultural Diversity
In today's healthcare, meeting the mental health needs of patients across diverse cultural settings is hindered by various competency-related issues. Racial and ethnic disparities continue to dominate healthcare settings leading to ineffective delivery of social, cultural and linguistic needs of patients. Healthcare settings lack adequate knowledge and skills to handle language and cultural beliefs especially to African Americans and Native American communities. These social groups hold great cultural respect for their traditional beliefs and constantly associate with their cultural healing perspectives. Conventional healthcare settings in the United States lack key components to effectively integrate the cultural and holistic treatment processes. According to statistics (Mulkey, Lacock & Scott, 2004), Native Americans have for long experienced lower health status and services compared to other ethnic groups in the United States, i.e. 1.3 times mortality rates for all causes compared to other races. This has resulted in reduced life expectancy, increased morbidity, and mortality, and overall decreased quality of life. Discrimination in healthcare usually goes unreported creating a quiet crisis.
Underfunding of healthcare programs attached to cultural healing, such as medical research and training has portrayed the unfairness in cultural healthcare compared to conventional settings' funding. I feel that the government has promoted discrimination and cultural incompetence through policies and inadequate funding. Lack of proper training and medical guidelines to handle cultural issues such as language barriers and beliefs also proliferate the growing crisis. Lack of integration in major healthcare settings hinder crucial communication and workplace diversity essential in developing competence. Cultural profiling and stereotyping in aspects of patient social and economic statuses where Native Americans are regarded as less civilized, uneducated or poor has proliferated poor healthcare delivery and coverage. Based on an English-proficient nation, Native Americans face various challenges in communication and access because of language barriers (American Psychiatric Association, 2017).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Native American Cultural Beliefs
Native Americans are a conservative ethnic group that utilizes a variety of holistic treatments to promote and maintain health in the community. Various spiritual guidelines are also used to promote social well-being in collaboration with traditional indigenous medicine. Herbs and therapies are constantly used traditional healers, who have in-depth knowledge and skills, passed to them from generations. A common healing system involves ceremonies where the patient, family, and community gather for a healing process: large numbers of participants enhance healing energy. The gathering connects with the spiritual world through traditional songs, dance, prayer, and sacrifice to restore health or avert severe health outcomes. According to Mental Health America, rituals such as Ojibwe prayer are significant steps to achieving or restoring health. Native Americans fundamentally connect to the creator (The Great Spirit) and nature to achieve primary care. Health is viewed as a gift from God and deviation requires reconnection with respective spirits.
Across various tribes such as Navajo, healthcare is comprised of religious practices and cultural traditions usually achieved through proper interaction with the community, nature, and respect to the spiritual deities. During rituals, food, objects and plants such as tobacco and sage to symbolize and deliver healing. Personal sanctity is key to achieving adequate health, through prayer and abidance to cultural and religious beliefs. Elders are the cultural healers who are respected by the community and their ritual items kept sacred. Vision quests, dreams, and relevance to traditional beliefs help maintain a person's sacred way of life, which is sustained by the Creator's spirit and later reincarnated after death. Illness is believed to be from supernatural forces according to majority of Native Americans: It is caused by disharmony from spirit and therefore requires a spiritual intervention alongside physical curing (medical intervention by medicine men or women). Women are not allowed to various ceremonies and rituals during menstruation, and total privacy is required when carrying out healing. Direct eye contact with elders is avoided, and gender privacy is highly maintained.
Mental Illness Management
In most Native American communities, mental illness is believed to be caused by an imbalance in body, mind, and spirit: they integrate various high-standard traditions to ensure that individuals connect with each other, nature, and the spirit to achieve optimum mental health (American Psychiatric Association, 2010). Proper connection with land, nature, and ancestors is also attributed to the overall quality of life in aspects of health among Native American communities. Deviation from cultural and religious duties or beliefs is attributed to suicide and poor mental health due to dissatisfaction by the respective spirits. Cleansing and healing to ward off spirits and regain sanctity are used alongside various family and community-oriented therapies in food, physical activity, and community work.
According to Manson (2000), many mental health patients are offered for traditional healing before being taken to hospital for conventional treatment. Historically, Native Americans refrained from violence and drugs and maintained close communal peace, which would shield them from mental illnesses. Modern social settings have promoted alcohol, violence, and stress which are being associated with increased mental health issues among Native Americans. Ancestral and family history is also associated with mental health issues: family lineage is essential in establishing future generations' in relation to sacred way of life. Some groups stigmatize mental illness on spiritual and cultural grounds, while others accept patients and improve their conditions through holistic approaches. For years, holistic method of mental illness management has sufficiently helped communities, but modern shift to conventional medicine has inhibited the practice of traditional healing and holistic recovery approaches.
References
American Psychiatric Association (2010). Special Section. Indigenous Peoples: promoting psychological healing and well-being. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/communique/2010/08/august-special.pdf
American Psychiatric Association Fact Sheet (2017). Mental Health Disparities: American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Manson, S. M. (2000). Mental health services for American Indians and Alaska Natives: Need, use, and barriers to effective care. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry , 45 (7), 617-626.
Mental Health America. Native American Communities and Mental Health. Retrieved from https://www.mhanational.org/issues/native-american-communities-and-mental-health
Mulkey, P., Lacock, M., & Scott, K. (2004). Guidelines for Health Care Providers Interacting with American Indian Patients and Their Families. Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council: Chicago, IL, USA .
