Question

Prepare at least a 150-200-word response to the following:

Describe the health challenges of American Indian and Alaskan Native people in the United States, as well as their beliefs about causes of illness and healing practices.

Are there cultural steps that can help prevent their illnesses? How would you use a multicultural evaluation to assess their medical situation?

Answer 1

“American Indian or Alaska Native” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.

American Indians and Alaska Natives continue to die at higher rates than other Americans in many categories, including chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, unintentional injuries, assault/homicide, intentional self-harm/suicide, and chronic lower respiratory diseases.Across the life span, American Indians and Alaska Natives have higher rates of disease, injury, and premature death than other racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

Many American Indians and Alaska Natives see their healers for spiritual reasons, such as to seek guidance, truth, balance, reassurance, and spiritual well-being. They may still use mainstream medicine to deal with “white man's illness.” However, there is a belief that the spirit cannot be separated from healing.

A large body of ethnographic work reveals that some American Indians and Alaska Natives, who may express emotional distress in ways that are inconsistent with the diagnostic categories of the DSM, may conceptualize mental health differently. Many unique expressions of distress shown by American Indians and Alaska Natives.Prominent examples include ghost sickness and heartbreak syndrome.