Question

Dear staff:

This is Yu.zhou. May anybody who is good at the Role of Culture in Healthcare class help me with the questions below. Thank you, sincerely.

How do you think differing views of ability and disability affected the Hmong relationship with Merced Hospital if they didn't "believe" that Lia was sick and in need of biomedicine? What are your thoughts on the concept of neurodiversity? How could differing perceptions and understandings of autism disorders between patients and providers stress the delivery of quality, culturally-responsive care?

Answer 1

During the early period of 1970s Hmong refugees are came from the war stricken areas of south vietnam and china. They later settled down in the USA. Hmong people are belongs to a diverse and cultural rich group, they have great respect for the afterlife and spiritual healing. It is a culture that has been passed on for centuries. Certainly it is going to take a huge effort to change their viewpoint on modern medicine and cannot be done overnight. The view of Lia being actually 'sick' (epileptic) was not acceptable to the family as they believed that she was spiritually gifted. To add to the confusion was improper communication as the hospital did not have translators and councellors who could convince the parents for the need of medical intervention. This developed a strong distrust between the hospital and the Hmong people.

Neurodiversity is a new approach to challenge the existing social stigma of many neurological disorders like autism and ADHD by integrating these individuals into the mainstream society. It is being discussed widely that these disorders should not be classified as pathological but rather an aberration in a normal genome. This nomenclature will remove the 'diseased' tag from such individuals, thereby promoting improved self esteem. The agenda of this to promote supportive and self management living with few alterations in infrastructure and lifestyle choices. This is certainly good in the long run as economic and emotional burden is shared by the society.

Autism is a spectrum of disorders that affect communication, social interaction and behavioural aspects of the child. It can range in severity from mild forms to severe forms. The parents play an important role in identifying the early signs of this disorder. However as parents may belong to different cultures and have a different set of beliefs, it is not always an open and shut case. Cultures and beliefs influence the way autistic disorders are perceived. For example: many parents in the arly 90s refused immunization for their children as they believed that it was responsible for development of autism. This in turn resulted in non immunized children prone to develop eradicated diseases like measles, rubella and polio. This would have resulted in re-emergence of these diseases and further cause added stress to the already stressed healthcare system.