Essay On Native Americans In Health Care

A common theme that has been discussed regarding the adversities that immigrants experience when arriving to the America are the social and cultural clashes between immigrants and citizens. What I find interesting is the conflicts pertaining to the health care system. Based on previous lectures, immigrants tend to mistrust the American healthcare system due to difference in medical remedies and the language spoken. I know first hand that my mother would perfer to have a Ghanaian physician, as opposed to the general white American doctor. Anne Fadiman wrote a successful award-winning book called, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, which highlights how the cultural differences between the Hmong culture and American medicine jeopardized the health of a little girl named Lia Lee. The story brings into light the topic of Medical anthropology, which is the study of medical systems, healing practices, and views on health from different cultures.

Even though through the Columbian Exchange we were able to gain many great materials and much knowledge about the other people who occupy our planet, many diseases where transferred to the Native Americans. Native Americans had not had the chance to gain an immunity to the different diseases that the Europeans had already come in contact with. This caused major issues when death started to treat the Native Americans like a close friend.

In the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman explores the cultural collision between the Hmong Lee family and their American doctors. Along with the culture clash, the social stigma against the Hmong family brings to light a lot of the systematic, moral, and ethical issues that can arise in our healthcare. Ultimately, the combination of the cultural clash in medical perspectives, the underlying social stigma, the inadequate treatment, and the miscommunication hindered the proper diagnosis and recovery of led to the demise of the Hmong child. However, many of the problems could have been easily avoided or resolved with more patience, objectivity, and most importantly, cultural competence. Cross-cultural methods and approaches should be taken to accommodate for the diverse patient population in our communities.

Native Americans were greatly affected by the expansion of the United States during the 1800s. As the U.S. moved west, they stole large amounts of Native American land by settling the land and killing the Natives who once lived there. Also during this time, their culture was being taken from them due to assimilation. While United States citizens were expanding into the west, many Native American lives were lost. They were also responsible for destroying a major food and supply source for Native Americans.

Native Americans have a rich and storied culture; a history rich in struggle, strife and triumph. Native Americans are a unique population that require a higher level of cultural competency. In the human services field. There are many different tribal groups, within Native Americans. Having a clear understanding, and knowledge of issues of the tribal group you are dealing with is helpful with providing services.

Alcohol and substance abuse runs rampant on American Indian Tribal Reservations. What 's still unclear is how much the Tribal and Federal Governments are doing to resolve or prevent this issue from occurring.“Tribal sovereignty refers to tribes ' right to govern themselves, define their own membership, manage tribal property, and regulate tribal business” (Google search) Healthy habits are important for living a long and prosperous life, every person should be in good hands when it comes to matters of health. The Federal Government should be taking more responsibility for the welfare of their citizens and providing adequate education and clinics concerning substance and alcohol abuse to tribal members, beyond what is already being provided

Aboriginals on reserve face many barriers when it comes to access to healthcare, they include cost, language, distance, climate, education and more. Distance and population results in a unreasonable cost lowering professionals and services accessed on reserves. The low amount of professionals on reserves and the low education levels make early diagnosis and treatment unlikely because of the lack of knowledge actor

Over the progression of the book the view points and relationships between the Lees and the doctors develops slightly. The medical staff was not prepared with a translator or a cultural understanding of the Hmong and how their beliefs would not match up with their medical practices. “Not only do the Hmong fail resoundingly to improve the payer mix- more than eighty percent are on Medi-Cal- but they have proved even more costly than other indigent patients, because they generally require more time and attention, and because there are so many of them that MCMC has to hire bilingual staff members to mediate between patients and providers” (Fadiman 25). This theme in the story was immensely eye opening for all of the cultural gaps that exist throughout the United States. The solution to this problem is for both sides standing on opposite sides of the gap to take the time to bridge the gap together. In order for this to work both cultures need to first build the relationships and establish a sense of trust between each other. Then, they need to be empathetic towards each other. In this case it is not where you are sympathetic for someone who does not understand the new culture around them, but you put yourself in their shoes and try to understand the difficult circumstances that are in front of them to help close the gap and not make it

Alcoholism has been the consumption of liquor that can create mental behaviors that become dependent on alcohol. Native American and Alaskan Natives are more likely than other ethnicities to die of alcohol related cases. There are different types of issues that can cause them to led this path. What causes them to have so many deaths related to alcoholism?   Method can be used to identify whether or not they have an alcohol related problem. There are different tools that people can use so they can screen them. They have many options that they can use in order to get help. There are also many ways that families can help out there love ones to get help. It is hard to get better but it is easy to fall back in temptation.

Cultural Competency in general is related to the ability to serve people in an appropriate way where they feel respected. In health care this refers to comfortable treatments that meet the standards of the patient from any backgrounds with all their different ways of living. Health care is a very important matter to every culture with different beliefs, traits, linguistics, etc. As Tamu Nolfo, the certified prevention specialist states in the short video “What is cultural competence and why is it important?”, there is still a problem with inequality in the United States. This makes it difficult to connect with such diverse cultures and backgrounds. It is; however, very important to have health care providers with cultural competent manners

Chief Pontiac is a Native American that is important to the United States’ history. He was a part of the Ottawa tribe and led the American Indians to a revolution also known as the Pontiac War or Pontiac’s Rebellion, which was against the British when they first came to America. He wasn’t afraid to die for his rights. He believed that they all had rights to live in America and to live how they wanted to live. I chose him for my Native American Research because he was a courageous Native American hero.

The legacy of medical care in Native American communities brings prejudices and personal biases. To explain, many Native Americans lack appropriate access to pain relief due to government

The colonization of Indigenous peoples has dramatically affected their health, and health-seeking behaviours, in a myriad of ways. The Indian Act of 1876 was, in essence, created to control the Indigenous population. The Indian Act laid out laws and regulations that tightly regulated the lives of natives economically, ideologically, and politically. This included a wealth of ways in which their identities were stripped away, and in which they were taken advantage of by the Government of Canada. This has resulted in a reduced quality of life for Canada 's indigenous population, as well as adverse health problems, and prejudicial perceptions that we still see the impact of today. The documentary series, 8th fire, by Dando and Ingles (2012) supports this claim. The Indigenous peoples ' have long felt betrayed by the government that they had signed a treaty with, so why would an Indigenous person seek health services from this establishment? The mistrust between the Indigenous peoples and the Government of Canada is the result of colonization, specifically the Indian Act, and it undoubtedly impacts Indigenous peoples and their faith in, and ability to get proper care from, the healthcare system.

Health care disparities are unfortunate and being culturally competent is an essential step toward eliminating these inequalities. In this discussion, I will review what disparities are associated with the Appalachian culture and how they affect health status, employment, and education. I will also identify two nursing interventions that could be taken to help decrease the affect that health disparities have on the Appalachians and review what the biggest challenge would be when implementing the interventions.

Compare the generic characteristics of counseling with respect to culture, class, and language, with Native American characteristics in terms of culture, class, and language. Which characteristics most closely reflect your culture, class, and language?