Family Cultural Values - Essay Example

? Family Cultural Values Family Cultural Values The importance of the 'culture assessment theory' As a melting pot that many indigenous cultures are trying to assimilate into, the United States faces challenges that are uncommon to other nations that have singular cultures. For example, in the medical sector, it has become evident that there is a need to incorporate different cultural methods of dealing with illnesses so as to gain the trust and interests of patients from assorted cultures. Today, many health care practitioners focus on providing medical education that is culturally sensitive when dealing with patients from different cultures. The cultural assessment theory stresses on the need of incorporating culturally relevant material when addressing treatment options for different patients. The aim of using the cultural assessment theory is to observe and respect their practices and beliefs when determining various treatment options. The cultural assessment theory is of great significance because it allows for information gathered through a cultural assessment to help the medical practitioner to come up with a treatment plan that can be considered by the patient to be culturally responsive. Moreover, this remains an overwhelming task for most medical practitioners as they have to take into consideration all the different cultures that are resident in the United States if this issue is to be addressed adequately. In the cultural assessment theory, the most important thing is to learn about how the patient’s culture interprets the incidence of illness. Demographics Filipino Americans form the second largest group of Asian citizens residing in the United States; with approximately 2 million of them living in the United States. According to Becker (2003) 70% of Filipinos living in the United States were not born there. Filipino Americans live in large intergenerational families with numerous close relatives. In many cases, the grandparents have the responsibility of looking after their grandchildren. According to Becker (2003) only 16% of Filipinos have advanced degrees while 18% have stable employment. Language and Culture ‘Tagalog’ of ‘Pilipino’ is the main language that is spoken by Filipino Americans. Moreover, in the Philippines, there are more than 80 languages that are spoken in the 7000 islands that make up the nation. Filipino Americans have created a language that includes elements of English as well as Tagalog known as ‘Tag-lish’- and this is commonly used, particularly in the younger generation of Filipino-Americans. Filipino society places great emphasis on the practice of ‘kapwa’ or shared identity. This society emphasizes on the importance of developing strong relationships between all members of society. In traditional Filipino society, there were domains of interactions that marked all social as well as communal activities (Espiritu, 2007). The external domain was marked by civility, known as pakikitungo, pakikilahok- or participation in societal activities, pakikitungo – or mixing with others, and pakikisama, which literarily meant adjusting one’s perceptions in order to fit better in one’s society. All these stages were essential before one could be held in full trust- or pakiisa- by the society (Espiritu, 2007). The enduring values extolled by Filipino society could be said to be the result of years of having to share more than 7000 islands even though just 1000 are inhabitable. Religion also plays a central role in Filipino society. There are traditional animistic religions that are still practiced in some sections of the Philippines. Moreover, most Filipinos are Catholics. There are small minorities in Mindanao and Sulu that are Muslims, though (Espiritu, 2007). The central place of faith even among Filipino Americans is such that even matters of health are given interpretations based on issues of faith. The importance of prayer and faith as important aspects in securing healing from disease is a reality in Filipino-American society. For most Filipinos, there is a connection between one’s physical well-being and being a faithful worshipper of the creator. Many Filipino Americans regularly incorporate spiritual elements such as fellowship with other believers in their daily lives. Health Issues among Filipino Americans Filipino Americans have exhibited high levels of hypertension, obesity, and diabetes in the recent past. According to Becker (2003) about 47% of all Filipino-Americans are moderately obese. The Filipino Americans have more numbers of obese people in their ranks than other ethnic groups such as Caucasian Americans and Hispanic Americans. In diabetes, whereas Asian Indians have the largest number of sufferers, Filipino Americans come second (Wexler, 2008). In the Filipino American ethnic group, cancer is the second leading cause of mortality. How Filipino Society traditionally dealt with Illness In the first place, the good of the society is viewed as being more important than the good of the individual. Within Filipino society, it is common for people to seek for medical help in order to save their communities from having to meet a lager bill if the illness is not cured. Individuals typically seek for medical help in order not to be burdens to their society (Sanchez and Gaw, 2007). This also means that when there is a family member with a serious illness, it is the family, rather than the individual, who will make the final decision of how to proceed and which treatments to use. Traditionally, Filipinos tended to believe that illness was the result of an imbalance in the human body’s humors as well as dietary elements. For example, cold foods were discouraged as breakfast. Being moderately obese was viewed as an important thing to be achieved because the extra fat layers would provide the body with warmth. It was also believed that diseases could have mystical causes. For example, ancestors might affect a person’s body to register their displeasure or remind the person of unfulfilled obligations. Heavy meals were not consumed at night before sleeping because it was believed that they could result in ‘bangungot’- or the soul’s wandering out of the body. It was also believed that evil spirits could cause illnesses; moreover, these could be easily rectified by cleansing the soul of various ills. Traditional Filipino medicine men would often give their clients various religious artifacts, or holy oils with which to defeat the purpose of evil spirits. Basically, Filipino traditional medicine was mainly preventative in that it aimed at discouraging the activities of malevolent entities- whether evil spirits or sudden changes in weather- by preventing the person from causing offence or causing a body imbalance that would leave him or her vulnerable to the changes of weather among other things. Traditional Filipino medicine also tended to emphasize on protecting the physical as well as psychological being from compromise. This was done through medicinal treatments, sacrifices, and incantations that would guard the gate to a person’s body. Healing in the Filipino American Society Today Today, many Filipino Americans still believe in traditional elements of prevention and the maintenance of balance. They have also incorporated the practices of other Asian neighbors such as the use of herbal remedies and acupuncture (Purkayastha, 2005). Filipino Americans also believe in the power of religious factors such as sacred rituals, prayers, or even massage. However, the notion of maintaining body awareness is probably the aspect that is still most observed by both young and older generations of Filipinos (Takeuchi, Zane and Hong, 2007). As believed in Filipino culture, if one maintains scrutiny of one’s body, he or she will be quick to notice any imbalances in any of the body’s systems. Filipino Americans also preserve balance within body systems by taking regular exercises. Moreover, there are areas in which the recommendations of Filipino traditional medicine differ sharply with those of Western medicine. For example, in Filipino society, as in most Asian societies, there are very different views about how to handle terminally ill patients (Sanchez and Gaw, 2007). It is considered to be wrong to inform terminally ill patients of their impending death. This will protect both the patient as well as the family as both will not have to deal with the feeling of helplessness. In addition, the patient might regain his or her strength and recover from the illness. According to Becker (2003) there are few, if any, Asian American, let alone Filipino American terminally ill patients, who use the available hospices even when they are unable to care for themselves. This is because the talk of death goes against their culture. The refusal to view the impending end of life as something negative could also be the result of religious influence; particularly among the Filipino Americans. The majority of Filipino Americans are Catholics. Catholicism actually encourages its adherents to look forward to the end of their earthly lives as it means that they will finally be united to their God. Health Needs of the Filipino American Society There are different ways in which nurses can incorporate cultural methods or treatment into modern methods so as to provide a familiar experience for Filipino American patients. There are holistic practices such as acupuncture which are recognized by the medical community today. Medical practitioners could also seek to include practices that are centered on the importance of body awareness in any treatment plans. This in itself would result in providing the patient with a strong initiative to cooperate with the medical practitioner in managing the disease. In America, most Filipino Americans tend to combine aspects such as maintaining balance, exercising the body, and sustaining harmony to ensure that they remain disease free or fight off opportunistic infections (Min, 2005). There is also an emphasis on maintaining social relationships with various important people in one’s life in order to keep the psychological man happy as well. The stress on the significance of maintaining balance within the body’s humors can be utilized as a cultural strength to improve the management of chronic illness as the patient can be educated on other aspects, discovered by modern medicine that could result in the body being unable to heal itself. Medical practitioners can be encouraged to treat various disorders affecting the Filipino American ethnic population at greater rates than other ethnic groups like diabetes by collaborating with health educators and community health workers, who are already trusted by the Filipino American community, to convey culturally specific resources that deal with diabetic symptoms to Filipino communities in various regions of America. Filipino Americans also still observe traditional rules about the consumption of certain foods. Medical practitioners can use cultural norms on the best foods to consume when ill to stimulate their patients to play an active role in the process of their own treatment. In the case of terminally ill patients, it would be necessary to make use of the family members as nurses for the ill person. In most Asian American cultures, including the Filipino-American culture, decisions on how a sick member of the family is treated are made by the heads of families after a moment of consultation. Most families are more likely to feel comfortable with their terminally ill patient being looked after in their own homes. References Becker, G. (2003). Cultural expressions of bodily awareness among chronically ill Filipino Americans. Annals of Family Medicine, 1(2), 113-118. Espiritu,Y. L. (2007). Home Bound: Filipino American Lives across Cultures, Communities, and Countries. Berkeley: University of California Press. Min, P. G. (2005). Asian Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issues. New York: SAGE Publications, Inc; Purkayastha, B. (2005). Negotiating Ethnicity: Second-Generation South Asian Americans Traverse a Transnational World. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Sanchez, F., & Gaw, A. (2007). Mental Health Care of Filipino Americans. Psychiatric Services, 58, 810-815. Takeuchi, D. T., Zane, N., & Hong, S. (2007). Immigration-Related Factors and Mental Disorders among Asian Americans. American Journal of Public Health, 97 (1). Wexler, B. (2008). Health and Wellness Illness Among Americans: Illness among Americans. New York: Gale. Read More