During the past few weeks of class, we explored various cultural conceptions of health and illness.
We identified how such conceptions have been influenced by the history of Western medicine (e.g., the emergence of the biomedical model, the emphasis on verifiability, the separation of the mind from the body in medicine as a result of Descartes’ notion of mind-bodydualism, the biopsychosocial model, etc.). We also discussed the idea that, over time, our society has become more “medicalized” (i.e., Zola’s writing about the medicalizing of society).
We discussed the factors that influence intercultural health communication interactions (i.e., source, message, and channel factors) as well as the ways in which gender, ethnicity, race, age, sexual identity, and socioeconomic status and other identity characteristics predispose certain populations to better or worse health and health care experiences (i.e., health disparities).
Central to our discussions about health, illness, and health care is an understanding that people who claim certain identities and/or experience certain illnesses and conditions are likely to encounter social stigma and bear the burden of the resultant prejudice and discrimination.
The purpose of this paper is to apply your understanding of these central themes. Your task is to read the select chapters (3 and 6) from Anne Fadiman’s (1997) book, The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors,and the collision of two cultures.
The selected chapters provide a brief overview of the Fadiman’s exploration of the Hmong community’s health care experiences in the Merced Community Medical Center (MCMM) in Central Valley, CA, during the early 1980s.
Although the book details the experiences of baby girl Lia Lee, whose family along with hundreds of other refugee families arrived in central CA after fleeing war-torn Laos, the author describes the conflicts between the Hmong community and their American health care providers in the American health care system.
Carefully read the select chapters and answer the following, using evidence from the texts to support your ideas.
1. How do differing cultural conceptions of health and illness shape the health care interactions between the Hmong community and the American health care providers?
2. How do the health care experiences described in these chapters illustrate the importance of source, message, and channel factors in health communication interactions at MCMM?
3. How might social stigma influence the Hmong community’s health care experiences and what are the possible consequences of such stigma?
4. What might help to improve the health care interactions between the Hmong community and American healthcare providers?
Paper Requirements
5. The paper is worth 40 points.
6. Your paper should have a cover page formatted according to APA (7th edition) style conventions.
7. Your paper should have a references page, using APA format.
8. Your paper should be double-spaced with 12-point font.
9. The length of the paper should be no less than 1250 words (somewhere between 5 and 6 double-spaced pages, excluding the title and reference pages).
