Transcultural care and individuals with an intellectual disability

Abstract

Healthcare delivery today reflects a history of change, which has responded to lifestyle changes, cultural diversity, population needs and expectations. In today's health-care environment it is crucial for health-care professionals to be mindful of cultural factors that affect health. These factors include the intricate interdependent biological, intellectual, psychological, social and spiritual needs of the individuals they work with. However, challenges exists for those who provide healthcare to people with intellectual disability. This article presents the transcultural care challenges for people with intellectual disability, through highlighting the biomedical/sociocultural perspectives of healthcare, communication and inequality experienced by those with intellectual disability. As a population group, people with intellectual disability can often be considered part of a larger culture rather than a culture within itself, and this article endeavours to emphasize that intellectual disability is in itself a coterminous culture. By highlighting intellectual disability as a cultural community within a larger community, requiring a transcultural response to care on several levels healthcare professionals can provide culturally compatible care to those with intellectual disability within a transcultural framework to augment a person-centred approach to care Keywords transcultural care, intellectual disability, communication, cultural models, inequity IntroductionPeople presenting with an intellectual disability remain among the most vulnerable members of society and often face many barriers in healthcare (Emerson and Baines, 2010;O'Hara, 2008;Leeder and Dominello, 2005). The aim of transcultural care is to provide culturally congruent healthcare. Transcultural care transcends all diverse ethnic backgrounds and cultural attributes and focuses primarily on the individual, thereby allowing transcultural care to be correlated with the provision of person-centred care for people with intellectual disability as a heterogeneous culture within a culture. This notion is supported by the Health Service Executive (2007) which recommends providing culturally aligned care to people with disabilities and highlights the importance of implementing and providing appropriate individualized care to not only individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds but already established minority groups such as people with intellectual disability. Healthcare delivery today reflects a history of change, which has responded to lifestyle changes, cultural diversity, population needs and expectations. (Ham et al., 2012;Rebair and Parker, 2013;Shi, 2012). Thus, acknowledging the amalgamation of multifaceted elements influencing and predisposing a person to factors that affect their health. Such factors include the intricate interdependent biological, intellectual, psychological, social and spiritual needs of the individual (Giger and Davidhizar, 2004;Naidoo and Wills, 1997). In essence, this places a person within the context of a culture and ...

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