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If you're reading this, you're 'SUNDAR' :)

2/29/2020

8 Comments

 
By: Will  
​
Culture plays a significant role when it comes to an individual’s influences and beliefs, as well as identifying your values and upbringing. Being immersed in another culture may conflict with an individual’s beliefs which can create tension. An example of a clash of cultures is demonstrated with how Western culture versus Native American culture both deal with overall health. Western culture is highly relied on technology to create more science based treatments. On the other hand, Native American culture is highly dependent on natural remedies as well having spiritual energies along side with strong community engagement. Additionally, the history behind Western and Native Americans has developed historical trauma which can create hesitancy when merging both parties.

From the film, Culture Matters: Indigenous Perspectives on Behavioral Health, the documentary highlighted the importance of integrating Native American, Alaska Native and Pacific Islander culture in behavioral health care programs. A characteristic that was lacking in Western practices when providing assistance to these indigenous populations was cultural incompetency. “Understanding the unique life experiences of those you serve and the transformative power in healing that can come from reconnecting with one’s culture was a fundamental principle” (8:02-8:13). Native American and Pacific Islander cultures have been very community based and tight-knit. Passing down traditions and practices to multiple generations, the indigenous groups value preserving their culture. “It’s important to understand that services for indigenous communities are often part of a broader nation-building context. That is, services are not merely services, they’re part of what’s needed to build strong nations and futures for indigenous and Native people'' (14:40-14:57). Overall, health care providers and programs should be more aware about cultural differences in the communities they serve. “... the most effective way to work with American Indian people, generally speaking, is when we’re utilizing traditional philosophies in our own language and our own perspectives with the best of what modern medicine has to offer” (23:22-23:34). Finding a balance between modern medicine and respecting traditional cultural practices is what we should strive for.

This week’s TED talk Mental Health for All by Involving All with Vikram Patel, piqued my interest regarding affordable mental health assets. “Mental illnesses are amongst the leading causes of disabilities around the world. Depression, for example, is the third leading cause of disability …” (1:57-2:06). With mental illness having one of the largest disability rates worldwide, Patel addresses the scarce shortage of mental health professionals, especially in developing countries. He then introduces the idea of task shifting as a means of assistance. Task shifting is when ordinary people are trained to provide care in a range of health care interventions when their community is short staffed with specialized health care professionals. Patel created an acronym that highlighted the key lessons for effective task shifting: SUNDAR, meaning ‘attractive’ in Hindi. Simplify the message, UNpack the treatment, Deliver it to where people are, Affordable and available human resources and Reallocation of specialists to train and supervise. This idea caught my attention because not only is task shifting more accessible and affordable but also fundamentally empowering, giving people the opportunity to care about the health for others in their community.

The WHO’s infographic on Global Mental Health ties in cohesively with Patel’s TED talk. The infographic showcases the shortage of mental health care providers and lack of services provided worldwide. The human resources statistics stood out to me regarding that “Only 1% of the global health workforce works in mental health” and “45% of the world’s population live in a country with less than one psychiatrist for 100,000 people” (WHO, 2015). More specifically, the U.S. has 4.3 nurses and 10.5 psychiatrists working in a mental health sector in comparison to Canada which has 68.7 nurses and 14.7 psychiatrists (WHO, 2016). This contrasting difference between Canada and the U.S. shows that even in developed countries, there is a lack of attention based around mental health care providers and assets.

Sources:
Wide Angle Studios, (August 11, 2011). Culture Matters: Indigenous Perspectives on Behavioral Health [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=yfdCaFEls_c&feature=emb_logo.
TED, (September 11, 2012). Mental Health for All by Involving All | Vikram Patel | TED Talks [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzm4gpAKrBk.
WHO, (2015). Global Mental Health [Infographic]. 
WHO, (2016). Psychiatrists and nurses working in mental health sector (per 100 000 population), 2014-2016. Retrieved from http://gamapserver.who.int/gho/interactive_charts/mental_health/psychiatrists_nurses/atlas.html.


Picture
"Mental Health" by Ximena Martínez is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
8 Comments
Jordan Tomas
3/1/2020 01:53:46 pm

Hi Will!

I think the film, Culture Matters, provides a unique insight on how culture impacts communities. For the indigenous people, they try to wear their culture and beliefs on their sleeve and they use culture to develop their children and encourage them to learn of their history and the significance of their group. As you mentioned, there should be a balance of maintaining culture and beliefs while implementing modern Western medicine.

I think Patel's message through his TED Talk is insightful and can
significantly impact how mental health treatment can be approached. Its unfortunate that we do not have enough personnel to assist with mental health issues. Fortunately, we can help delegate some tasks to at least lessen the burden to health care professionals.

Reply
Stephanie Cruz
3/1/2020 05:10:03 pm

Hey Will,

Loved your post and totally agree that culture plays a huge role on our influences and decisions. I think that our environment as well has an impact too because it has to do what we are exposed to as well. I know that individually we are our own person but even I catch myself thinking and acting like my parents. Although my parents have different views then me I know that I was definitely influenced by them because they raised me.

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Kathy Luangrath
3/1/2020 06:43:40 pm

Hi Will, I really enjoyed reading your blog post! As you mentioned, I think it is so crucial to think of how culture influences one's beliefs, values, and upbringing! I personally feel that we sometimes overlook this significant part of life. I find that our shift in society has made us become more apathetic and strives on the need to "assimilate" into a norm. That said, I think it was very interesting how you compared/contrasted Western and Native American culture. I think it's super important to have a culturally-sensitive health care system that caters to other cultures not just Western culture.

The TED talk "Mental health for All" was very enlightening and in my perspective! This talk made me reflect on how ironic that mental illness is so prevalent around the world, yet so little funding goes into helping to improve the mental health outcomes of people around the world. I find it very saddening but I truly believe that this talk provides a compelling framework for extending accessibility and affordability towards mental health services.

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Christine Nguyen
3/1/2020 11:53:21 pm

Hi Will!
Thank you for you blog post! I really like your illustration and how that can be implied to mental health and being able to seek the help people need in order to fully understand themselves. It blows my mind how there is a vast difference in the number of medical professions working in the mental health department compared to Canada. I understand there is free health care in Canada, but that dose not mean the U.S., a well developed country, should be lacking in the efforts to sustain the health of its citizens.

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Lena Angelica Camacho
3/3/2020 08:42:04 pm

Hi Will,
I really appreciated you mentioning the topic of mental health and making care affordable. I believe that many people don't receive the treatment they need due to the fact that things like therapy and medications are so expensive. This eventually leads to some individuals with more severe cases not being able to function normally in everyday life to the point they may not be able to hold down a job. This is where mental illness becomes very debilitating.

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Danielle Lee
3/4/2020 04:29:01 pm

Hi Will!
I loved your post and how you brought up that the merging of both Western Culture and Native American Culture has created historical trauma. Your image is powerful and I think it was a great representation of the ability to be complete when dealing with mental health. It's hard to grasp that only 1% of healthcare providers work in the mental health field, I think we need to really emphasize the importance of this field.

Reply
Yuta Chen
3/6/2020 03:23:55 pm

Hi Will,
I really enjoy reading your post and I also like the idea from Patel to addresses the problem of mental health professionals shortage in developing countries. SUNDAR give the communities with limited resources an opportunity to treat mental illness with affordable price. This is very important because I think many people refuse to see a doctor because the treatment or the price of the medication is too expensive, it is almost impossible for the people in developing countries to access.

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TJ Kapil
3/8/2020 12:26:46 pm

Hi Will, Thank you for sharing, I enjoyed reading your post. I really liked Patel's Idea of task shifting. This this a great way to create awareness about mental health among people and also to get more people to receive care they weren't able to receive before. I also feel people might feel comfortable sharing with someone who is not a doctor because it might be less intimidating and stressful.

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