By: Danielle Lee
Culture matters when addressing mental health, because in order to improve an individual’s mental health, you have to understand what guides their decisions. For example, in the Native American culture, they are nomadic, which means they move with the land, because as seasons change, so do their resources. Sticking to their roots and appreciating the land so deeply, has affected the ways in which they handle the improvements of mental health. In the video Culture Matters: Indigenous Perspective on Behavioral Healthcare they mention the camp Old Minto Recovery Camp located in Alaska, where a young girl mentioned “it’s good to be out in the open because other treatments that I’ve been to, you’re locked up in a building and can’t do nothing, here you can go out and chop wood” (11:07-11:22). There was also the mention that the recovery camp was unique because an individual seeking help could bring their families with them to go through the recovery process together. What Western medicine technique has proved to be as inviting?
Understanding the importance of unity and the connection that the Native Americans have with their land can help aid Western medicine in helping to improve mental health among this community. Western medicine typically relies on the support of medications and hospital buildings or clinics. To push this pressure on a community that doesn’t seek this way of treatment can tarnish the relationship already desperately needed to be built. Instead with the understanding of culture, both Western medicine and the Native American community can team up to find a solution that addresses and improves mental health. A solution that includes being united with the land, its resources and the involvement of family and friends.
Source:
Alonzo, D. (Director). Echo-Hawk, H. (Narrator). (2011). Culture Matters: Indigenous Perspectives on Behavioral Healthcare [Online video]. Wide Angle Studios . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfdCaFEls_c <%22>
Culture matters when addressing mental health, because in order to improve an individual’s mental health, you have to understand what guides their decisions. For example, in the Native American culture, they are nomadic, which means they move with the land, because as seasons change, so do their resources. Sticking to their roots and appreciating the land so deeply, has affected the ways in which they handle the improvements of mental health. In the video Culture Matters: Indigenous Perspective on Behavioral Healthcare they mention the camp Old Minto Recovery Camp located in Alaska, where a young girl mentioned “it’s good to be out in the open because other treatments that I’ve been to, you’re locked up in a building and can’t do nothing, here you can go out and chop wood” (11:07-11:22). There was also the mention that the recovery camp was unique because an individual seeking help could bring their families with them to go through the recovery process together. What Western medicine technique has proved to be as inviting?
Understanding the importance of unity and the connection that the Native Americans have with their land can help aid Western medicine in helping to improve mental health among this community. Western medicine typically relies on the support of medications and hospital buildings or clinics. To push this pressure on a community that doesn’t seek this way of treatment can tarnish the relationship already desperately needed to be built. Instead with the understanding of culture, both Western medicine and the Native American community can team up to find a solution that addresses and improves mental health. A solution that includes being united with the land, its resources and the involvement of family and friends.
Source:
Alonzo, D. (Director). Echo-Hawk, H. (Narrator). (2011). Culture Matters: Indigenous Perspectives on Behavioral Healthcare [Online video]. Wide Angle Studios . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfdCaFEls_c <%22>
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