Chapter 6: Culturally Based Healing and Care Modalities

Abstract

I. INTRODUCTION A. This chapter continues to address culture-based health and illness beliefs and care practices; however, these are not limited to specific periods of life but rather can be applied across the full spectrum of a lifetime. B. The topics in this chapter include mental health and illness, violence, care of refugees, pain management beliefs and practices, nutrition, complementary and alternative therapy, and pharmacogenetics. C. Each topic describes the cultural components of health and how the practice of ethical transcultural nursing and health care can be enhanced through application of the concepts presented. II. MENTAL HEALTH AND ILLNESS A. Cultural Definitions of Mental Health and Illness: Cultural groups rarely define mental health and illness but instead make use of explanatory models in their understanding and labeling of behavior, thoughts, and emotions. They use these models to determine when the mental illness label is applied (Tyson & Flaskerud, 2009a). 1. Definitions of mental illness remain subject to individual interpretation. 2. Individual understanding evolves with age, increased exposure to life events, and differing explanatory models. 3. There is no universal definition of mental health that represents all people within a cultural group. 4. Many cultures have explanatory models of mental illness but not of mental health. a. Definitions of mental health are not distinguished from physical and spiritual well-being or illness, and day to day functioning. b. Mental health and illness are explained more than "defined." (1) Definitions and explanations occur within historic and contemporary social, cultural, political, migration, and religious contexts. (2) Somatization-manifestation of physical illness that cannot be explained in medical terms and may express psychological distress (U.

Moments of joy and delight: the meaning of traditional food in dementia care

“…Old people may feel disappointed and uncherished when served food foreign to them (Kayser‐Jones , Clark et al . ). Food habits from their younger years may be important in reducing or preventing malnutrition, particularly in nursing home patients with severe dementia.…”

Nursing Ethics and the 21st-Century Armed Conflict

“…The loss of that nurse in an armed conflict might affect 400 people in 1 month of social insecurity. Clark et al (2010) write that "Local conflicts may result in changes to cultural rules." Transcultural nurses should be aware that in a conflict situation, the normative is disrupted and what nurses can expect of clients, from the mundane filling of a prescription to the assumption of nurse safety, may not be possible.…”

“…Thus there is a gap in practical, pragmatic, and ethical solutions for nurses and medical professionals who find themselves in noninternational armed conflict situations. Clark et al (2010) provide an impressively complete description of war situations including noninternational armed conflict and civil war. They include a comprehensive list of the responsibilities of nurses in such contexts, including caring for both sides without prejudice, bearing witness to suffering, and intervening in torture; as well as fostering reconciliation.…”

“…They include a comprehensive list of the responsibilities of nurses in such contexts, including caring for both sides without prejudice, bearing witness to suffering, and intervening in torture; as well as fostering reconciliation. However, advice on how to contend with being deliberately targeted for attack is missing from this otherwise comprehensive document (Clark et al, 2010).…”

Hospital food: When nurses' and ethnic minority patients' understanding of Islamic dietary needs differ

“…Food culture is a term used to describe the non‐nutritive, yet nonetheless significant, aspects of food, such as when food is eaten and how it is served (Clark et al, ). People tend to take their food habits with them when they migrate.…”