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"In today's healthcare landscape, diverse cultures converge among providers, patients, and staff, shaping beliefs and expectations. The prevailing Euro-American healthcare model offers amazing advanced treatments, but intercultural encounters frequently bring confusion and conflict when worldviews and cultural origins differ; awareness and understanding can reduce unconscious biases, inequities, and discrimination. Drawing from cultural psychology, sociology, anthropology, and direct experience, Fox explores these dynamics, offering insights from stakeholders across cultures. This book illuminates intersections of culture, healthcare, and mortality, recognizing cultural diversity as a source of wisdom and vitality. It provides concepts and tools to navigate cross-cultural encounters in healthcare, facilitating better treatment outcomes. Embracing multicultural perspectives can enrich experiences in facing serious illnesses and end-of-life care, benefiting practitioners, patients, and families alike. This book is for healthcare professionals, educators, and students, as well as anyone seeking to understand and navigate cultural complexities in healthcare with compassion and insight"-- Provided by publisher.
List of contents
Introduction to a cultural species; Module 1. The basic psychological components of culture; Module 2. Becoming human; Module 3. Acculturation: cultures in contact; Module 4. Multicultural adaptation; Module 5. Health and well-being; Module 6. Disease and healing; Module 7. Diversity and the conventional medical world; Module 8. Thinking about death; Module 9. Managing mortality and difficult passages; Module 10. Cultures approach the end; Module 11. Critical and end-of-life care; Module 12. Culture, passages, and psychosocial supports.
About the author
Stephen Henry Fox is a distinguished interdisciplinary academic, artist, and educator, whose work spans writing, music composition, and teaching. Residing in Hawaii for most of his life, Fox draws deeply from the region's rich cultural tapestry. His expertise, backed by degrees in Cultural Psychology, Music, and Social Work, uniquely positions him at the intersection of art, culture, and mental health. In addition to his scholarly and artistic pursuits, Fox is a sought-after consultant for cultural programs dedicated to preserving traditional arts. His multifaceted contributions make him a visionary in both the academic and creative communities.
Summary
This book is an invaluable resource for understanding the profound connections between culture, healthcare, and mortality. In a world where healthcare professionals ꟷ doctors, nurses, clients, patients, and staff ꟷ are increasingly engaging in cross-cultural interactions, this text equips readers with essential insights to navigate diverse beliefs and expectations surrounding health and treatment, particularly in moments of stress and vulnerability. While healthcare is often grounded in Euro-American belief systems, this book broadens the reader's perspective, offering essential tools to enhance intercultural understanding during health crises and end-of-life care. It empowers both patients and practitioners to adapt and collaborate, fostering better treatment outcomes by bridging cultural divides. Gaining this multicultural lens is not only crucial for healthcare and cross-cultural psychology but also for confronting the universal experience of mortality ꟷ our own and that of our loved ones.
Foreword
Explores cultural issues in healthcare and mortality from an interdisciplinary perspective, enhancing intercultural understanding in a diverse world.
