Health and Women as Healers in the African American Culture - Research Paper Example

Health and women as healers in the African American culture How has health and illness defined African American culture? Culture establishes a collective system of meaning, the way that individuals experience, observe and understand the world. The guidelines of culture pass from one generation to the next through a procedure in which people develop a cultural lens for having knowledge of the world. Individuals may move between cultures while at the same time inhabiting a relatively unique subculture. The subculture has its ideas, rules, and social organization, as done by African Americans. African American self-care practices emerged from strategies for survival and long term attempts to overcome adversity. African Americans have a long health tradition and practices of health that shape what they do to care for themselves today. According to Becker, Rahima, and Edwina (par. 9), the traditional medicine of African Americans can be traced back past enslavement in America to their native cultures in Africa. Fundamental facets of the African American culture are key self-care strategy development. There is a basic self-care approach that builds on extensive values and practices. These practices and values comprise of social support, spirituality and traditional medicine. Each of these practices of culture is vital in shaping the understanding of an individual of self-care. Together, they form the foundation for the activities of self-care that are cultured further so as to manage illnesses. Nonetheless, when the cultural approach to self-care was applied to particular health concerns, the establishment of additional self-care strategies was impacted by access to health care. Health care accessibility made a difference in how individuals managed their illnesses What roles do women fulfill as healers in African American culture? Healing has a long alliance with faith, spirit, family support and altered consciousness state. Women have traditionally been healers in the society in all cultures, as healing has been viewed as the natural duty of wives and mothers. Healing has also been regarded as a natural display of the feminine principle. Healing is the return toward the integrity natural state and individual wholeness. Healers facilitate the process of healing. The woman healer learns or inherits skills and abilities of healing from family, apprenticeships or spirits. The woman healer can holistically observe the intricate nature of the illness. Then, she treats the mind, body and spirit with stress in the spirit and practice prevention of disease. Moreover, their clients trust them. These women have a distinct connection to the spirit world that empowers them to heal. Additionally, they are wise to the human heart ways. Some of the roles that women fulfill as healers in the African American culture are conducting healing circles, praying and using songs to heal. They also have a duty of employing the teachings of the medicine wheel, performing drama to heal self and others and sharing of culture, traditions and teachings (Struthers, 276). They also act as healers within the dimensions of the spirit by returning lost parts of the human soul. They also cleanse excess energy which confuses the soul. They also communicate with the spirits to lessen unsettled issues and unrest. Also in trauma situations, the women healers intervene and return the essence of the soul. In what ways are female healers’ roles empowering to them and other women? Women are powerful with distinctive gifts that are far reaching. They have been tuned to walk in the cultural world. Women’s great aptitude for bonding has made them gifted at seeing and understanding past surface levels. Their roles as healers have empowered both themselves and their fellow women. The female healers can empower themselves by advocating discovery of self as a healer. They can also empower other women by laying a foundation for healing practice by teaching them about indigenous healers. They can also provide examples and chances to experience diverse methods of healing. Other women can also be empowered by expanding their healing practice to incorporate a universal way of offering health care. They can attain this feat by acknowledging and facilitating a universal framework. As a result, they will lend comfort to themselves by practice of the model of body, mind and spirit. For this to be facilitated, it is essential for women to depend on their natural, intrinsic feminine knowledge and inborn holistic framework for knowing. Thereby, they will get back to the original anchor and soul of healing. Are women’s illnesses and diseases believed to be linked to their physiology? Women have a higher probability of developing health conditions than men. General mental health conditions are more prevalent in women than in men. One of the greatest factors that create this disparity between females and males in health conditions is women’s physiology. For instance, Hysteria is unquestionably the first mental disorder that is accredited to women. Moreover, the Greek physician Hippocrates believes that hysteria can be traced back to the movement of the uterus (Tasca, 10). He stresses on a restless and migratory uterus and attributes the illness to a venomous stagnant humors which have been expelled. Hippocrates avows that the body of the woman is physiologically wet and cold and thus prone to breakdown of the humors. This is in contrast to the dry and warm body of the male. Subsequently, Hippocrates states that the uterus is predisposed to get sick and this happens if it is denied the benefits of procreation. According to Hippocrates, procreation widens the canals of the woman, hence promoting cleansing of the body. Moreover, Bittel (138) acknowledges too, that women suffer more than men from hysteria. Additionally, he also agrees with the reflex theory and that the nervous and reproductive systems were connected. He believes that both uterine and ovarian disease could be linked to nervous illnesses. Bittel (138) concurs that women have unique physiological constraints owing to their mostly lesser storage capacity of force and their physiological limits. According to Bittel (138), while some hysteria forms are attributed to nerve force depletion and brain lesions, hysteria can also be attributed to the utero-ovarian disease. Numerous women that are detected with hysteria had prolapsed uteri. As asserted by Miller and Hay (296), autoimmune disorders overwhelmingly have the greatest effect on the female populace. There are two major physiological factors that are thought to increase the susceptibility of women to autoimmunity disorders. They comprise of genes and hormones. Genetics fall short in explaining why women are more susceptible than men to a particular given illness. For instance, systemic lupus erythematosus is 6 to 14 times more in women than men (Miller and Hay, 299). How is disability viewed in the African American culture? Attitudes towards disability vary among cultures and ethnicities. Cultural teachings often impact beliefs about the origins and nature of disability and shape attitudes towards the disabled. Understanding cultural and individual beliefs about disability is necessary for the implementation of effective approaches to health care. African Americans attribute a disability to spirituality in causing and treating. The recognition of disability as a disability culture and defining identity as a cohesive force is unusual in African Americans. Three conditions are essential for such a culture and identity to advance. First is the social alienation view from members of the family and second is the immersion in a physical and social environment that is supportive. This is where the meanings of disability are produced, reinforced and passed across generations (Devlieger, Gary, and Miram, par. 1). Also, they take care of all the needs of the disabled family member creating unnecessary dependence and possibly learned helplessness (Marini & Stebnicki, 153). Disability rates in African Americans are similar to those of the general populace. However, they often bear an unduly high disability burden that results from a mental disorder. This discrepancy does not stem from a greater rate of prevalence or seriousness of an illness in African Americans. However, the disparity stems from a lack of culturally competent care and receiving less or poor quality care. Nevertheless, most African Americans have the capability of maintaining good mental health, but many are nonetheless in desperate need of mental health treatment. African Americans who have a mental illness may present their symptoms, according to certain stress idioms. Their symptoms presentation can differ from what most clinicians are trained to anticipate and may lead to diagnostic and treatment planning problems. For some disorders, there is a high possibility of misdiagnosis as a result of the differences in how African Americans express emotional distress signs and symptoms. They depend heavily on supports from the community, specifically the church. In addition to seeking assistance through rehabilitation and medical systems, many African-Americans are more likely than other ethnicities to use alternative therapies. When the corresponding therapy is used, their use may not be communicated to clinicians. Work Cited Becker, Gay, Rahima Jan Gates, and Edwina Newsom. "Self-care among chronically ill African Americans: culture, health disparities, and health insurance status." American Journal of Public Health 94.12 (2004): 2066. Print available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448591/ Bittel Carla Jean. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Politics of Medicine in Nineteenth-century America. USA: University of North Carolina Devlieger, Patrick J., Gary L. Albrecht, and Miram Hertz. "The production of disability culture among young African–American men." Social Science & Medicine 64.9 (2007): Print Marini Irmo and Stebnicki Mark. The psychological and social impact of illness and disability, 6th Edition. New York: Springer Publishing Company. Print Miller Virginia and Hay Meredith. Principles of sex-based Differences in Physiology. USA: Elsevier Inc. Print Struthers Roxanne. The Lived Experience of Ojibwa and Cree Women Healers Journal of holistic nursing, Vol. 18 No. 3, September 2000 261-279 © 2000 American Holistic Nurses’ Association 261. Print Tasca, Cecilia, et al. "Women and hysteria in the history of mental health." Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health: CP & EMH 8 (2012): 110. Print Read More