University of Nairobi Health and Culture & Modern Medicine Discussion

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

How can health care providers prepare for situations like Lia’s?

Health care providers should understand that compliance to medications requires the patient to follow instructions and ensure that the patients know the importance of following these instructions (Brinkmann, 2018). They also need to know the different approaches that can be used to give these compliance instructions. Besides, the health care providers need to know that patients have to agree first to adhere to their medications. It should be an informed and shared decision-making process, and the client should understand both the problem and the solutions to it (Uy & Dimaano, 2019). Health care providers need to overcome cultural differences if they are to achieve all the objectives in healthcare administration.

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Cultural beliefs are significant issues that are considered when dealing with health matters. Health care providers should understand that different clients come from diverse cultural backgrounds. These cultural beliefs can make it harder for a patient and health care provider to agree on issues relating to procedures and treatment plans. Health care should become aware of the need to provide culturally competent care to avoid conflicts. Other health care providers should encourage their co-workers to adopt this kind of care. They should so with openness and positivity and forego the critical view. Making assumptions is one of the ways that create conflicts when it comes to client’s cultural differences.

Besides, health practitioners should avoid making assumptions, and they should be willing to learn about these cultural differences (Brinkmann, 2018). The health care providers need to create trust and a good rapport with the patient despite their cultural differences. This can be done by being kind to the patients, listening to their reasoning, and displaying good body contact. To overcome language barriers that exacerbate cultural misunderstandings, healthcare providers should look for a translator to make sure there is an understanding between the patient and the healthcare providers. The health care providers have a responsibility to educate the patients about the available medical practices. Client’s with differences in cultures also need to be explained further on carrying the medical practices back at home.

Should child protective services have been contacted?

The parties involved (the Lees and doctors) had good intentions for Lia. The child protective services should not have been contacted for Lisa’s case. She was only a victim of misunderstanding of cultural differences. They contacted the child protective services, and she was placed under foster care with the good intention of helping Lia. They were concerned and had it in mind that Lia’s parents were endangering her life by not giving her the prescribed medications (Uy & Dimaano, 2019).

It was not wise to contact child protective services because a family was broken, the Hmong community faith trembled. Patient autonomy is one of the principles the doctors should have used in this case. The patients have the right to make their own decisions regarding health. Doctors are supposed to give information about the illness and treatment plans about an illness (Morse n.d). Lia’s doctors had a genuine concern for her life. They could have used the maleficence principles that state that doctors should not do any harm to patients. Lia’s parents, on the other hand, had a good intention for their baby too. They saw the prescribed drugs were complex, and they also feared the side effects of the drugs. They did understand the cause of the illness and the treatment plan, and they believed they were not matching. They believed that her illness was a spiritual matter caused by the division between her body and soul. Lia’s soul was lost during t the convulsions, and they failed to give the medications prescribed. They did everything in their best of knowledge according to the Hmong beliefs to help her. They gave animals as a sacrifice, sought help from the clan leader and Shaman, and bought amulets that were expensive to help her soul return (Brinkmann, 2018). Contacting the child welfare services caused a separation of Lia from her family. It worsened Lia’s recovery. It also brought problems to the Hmong’s society and their beliefs.

Were Lia’s parents irresponsible?

Lia’s parents were very responsible because they did not leave their daughter to die from seizures. They only had a culture that was different from that of the doctors. They believed in Hmong traditions, which had numerous traditions and folkways negated by American standards and clinical communities (Brinkmann, 2018). Some Hmong customarily perform custom animal sacrifice, and due to quite certain burial customs and the dread of every human’s numerous souls potentially getting away from them. The customary Hmong convictions do not consider anybody going through invasive clinical surgery. Hmong clinical framework depends on a nature-based hypothesis that allows life to flow as it very well might be, though the western clinical framework depends on modernized humanism-based clinical science (Uy & Dimaano, 2019). So, when the American specialist treated lIa with western medication, Lia’s folks disagree with them. Lia’s parents showed responsibility in the care for their doctor.

They had a different understanding of the illness. Their concept and thinking of epilepsy were based on cultural beliefs. They did everything possible to help her recover from the illness. They gave animals as a sacrifice, sought help from the clan leader and Shaman, and bought amulets that were expensive to help her soul return. In light of strict distinction and language boundaries, prompted problems with Lia’s treatment. Lia was a helpless young lady; when she was three months old, she had epilepsy. Even though her folks conveyed her to the clinic to acknowledge treatment, her folks did not accept the specialist. They acknowledged chemotherapy yet also utilized the conventional Hmong approach to fix Lia (Fadiman, n.d). They were very caring because they did everything to assist Lia. They also showed responsibility by doing everything according to the traditional customs of the Hmong.

How did the parents’ belief system affect Lia’s health care?

Lia’s parents believed in the Hmong’s way of life, which was different from the western culture. Her parents had a solid conviction in the Hmong’s way of life and had a lot of trouble acknowledging another culture. When the specialists attempted to persuade Lee’s family about Lia’s medicines, it was hard for the Lees to acknowledge that. During Lia’s early stages, after experiencing several convulsions and visiting the accidents and emergency section at Merced’s region emergency clinic, Lia’s doctor diagnosed epilepsy after several visits (Fadiman, n.d).

The doctors recommended standard medications for her to get well. Lia’s parents disagreed with them and called the condition ‘quag spot stake’. They comprehended the condition as losing one’s soul, which her sister started while he banged the door and terrified the soul. Lia’s parents saw the disease as impairing but instead considered it an ailment of some distinction and were undecided about treatment. Her parents refused to use the recommended medication because they favored the strategy for treating Lia was with their conventional natural ways, shamanism, and sacrifice of animals (Putsch & Joyce, n.d). This was the reason for the collision between the two societies. Lia’s parents were convinced that the prescribed medications led to more convulsions. In contrast, the doctors placed their blame on Lisa’s parents for being inadequate and rebellious. This fight between these two parties continued for a long time until Lia developed the grand mal fit (Uy & Dimaano, 2019). The doctors attending to her kept all the records about her condition. Her record chart kept expanding, and her case becomes more complex. The incompliance with medications made the doctors change her treatment regimens, making them more complex and harder to follow. The side effects were also due to changes in the treatment regimens.

Were the parents’ decisions morally and legally wrong?

Lia’s parents were morally wrong in choosing to believe the traditional Hmong way. Legally according to the United States constitution, it upholds the autonomy of the patient. The patient can make their own decisions without being coerced or influenced by any health care provider. Patients’ autonomy gives room for a patient to be educated on the available procedures and medicines, but they cannot make decisions (Morse n.d). Lisa’s actions were morally wrong as she did not take time to inquire and understand more about her daughter’s illness.

Lia’s disease stays baffling to her parents; however, they did acknowledge the mystery. The practically transcendent way Lia senses her seizures indicating the spirit/body association. What the Lees see as the vague idea of Lia’s condition additionally echoes their perspective on calamities as something that cannot be controlled. Her folks become more skeptical about Lia’s treatment. They do not comprehend why attendants should control Lia to oversee an IV (Putsch & Joyce, n.d). Lia and her folks seldom separate from one another during her emergency clinic stays. They had no idea to know how to give her medicine at home. The emergency clinic understands that Lees is not giving Lia her prescription as it was required. They did not know whether the Lees did not comprehend the guidelines or did not t have any desire to comply. The clinic staff attempted to make the cycle simpler by making house calls to explain to them and utilize basic markings to show the Lees how much medication to give and when. In any case, the Lees did not give Lia the drugs as recommended (Uy & Dimaano, 2019). This shows that her parents were morally wrong for not trying to enquire further on why the treatments were given. They did not even try to understand why their child was placed under foster care.

References

Brinkmann J. (2018, May). The spirit catches you: Cultural collisions and cooperation in medical encounters. https://opedge.com/Articles/ViewArticle/2018-05-01/the-spirit-catches-you-cultural-collisions-and-cooperation-in-medical-encounters

Fadiman A. (n.d.). The spirit catches you, and you fall down: A Hmong Child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures | Insight medical publishing. Global Healthcare journals | Cultural Diversity | Nursing Care. https://diversityhealthcare.imedpub.com/the-spirit-catches-you-and-you-fall-down-a-hmong-child-her-american-doctors-and-the-collision-of-two-cultures.php?aid=2390

Morse S. (n.d.). Medical Care and Multiculturalism. https://my.wlu.edu/Documents/mudd-center/journal-vol-3/medical-care-and-multiculturalism.pdf

Putsch, R. W., & Joyce, M. (n.d.). Dealing with patients from other cultures – Clinical methods – NCBI bookshelf. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK340/

Uy, T., & Dimaano, C. (2019). Lessons learned from the spirit catches you, and you fall down: Student perspectives on how cultural differences can lead to health disparities. Health Education Journal, 79(1), 73-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0017896919862592

University of Nairobi Health and Culture & Modern Medicine Discussion