Heritage Assessment has brought cross-cultural interactions whereby different cultures are mixture together. This therefore means that geographical boundaries are no longer a limit to different cultures. There are however certain features of culture for example relationships and religion that can barely be worn down by global communications. Much concern has however been raised throughout the entire world over personalized health care awareness.
It is essential that every organizational cultural setting have maximum effects on management and governance of issues related to health care. The fact that the public have become conscious towards encouraging sound health and prevention of various diseases have led to creation of methods and techniques that ease the work of health care professionals towards understanding the kind of patient whom they are taking care of. Heritage Assessment tool is one of the techniques that is being used to recover the traits of a patient before administering any sort of medical help (Edelman & Mandle, 2010).
Heritage is distinctive to human being just like fingerprints. This is because different cultures have got exceptional features that they do not share with other communities. Heritage is the parameter used mainly in identifying the ethics, way of life and the religious background of particular people in a specific geographical boundary. Traditional health schemes used in restoring, improving and maintaining of human health stand out to be a distinctive culture.
The concepts employed include the physical, mental and spiritual beliefs of an individual. It is not easy to outline the way in which health matters are being handled based on specifications of cultural heritage. This paper mainly addresses the usefulness of applying heritage assessment in evaluating the needs of whole person. It also compares the differences in health traditions between Middle Eastern community’s culture, Nigerian culture and Indian culture addressing mainly their health maintenance, protection and restoration.
Many people’s attitudes and opinions concerning health care providers have greatly changed after apprehending policies set by national health care. Heritage Assessment tool is being used by health care providers to identify with the client position regarding his/her beliefs and cultures. Actually it is the best way in which they can be able to fully understand the person they want to treat before taking any form of medical actions. Given that the ultimate aim of most health care providers is to alleviate diseases and assuage suffering in the best effective way possible, it is therefore practical for health care experts to fully understand the procedure that will make the patient comfortable.
In health care profession, understanding of cross-cultural value plays a vital role for the health care providers (Spector, 2000). A conscious understanding of cross-cultural setting will help the health care providers in administering health care to their patients in a comfortable way as possible. Heritage Assessment tool can enable them understand this and it will also ensure that all the measures of intervention used are in the boundaries of recipient cultures since that is the only way which will make them comfortable.
Heritage Assessment tool can also be used to differentiate diverse traditions and heritage of diverse cultures. Being an Indian and having an Indian background, practices, traditional beliefs and customs, I have various health beliefs and some are specific based on the region I come from. Indian people are well known for fair treatment and endurance of guests despite their economic status, religious beliefs and race. Elderly Indians have a belief that health and wealth are things related to the human mind, soul and body. Many Indians may not seek medications when it comes to mental health as compared to other diseases and some may wait until their condition is critical to seek for medical help. Most Indians believe in traditional medicine such as Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Naturopathy, Acupressure, Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy, and Siddha (Probst 2011).
Despite other Indians believing in Western medication, there are some who still prefer herbal medication to accelerate their healing process. Indians have a diverse and unique culture. Today, most Indians concentrate more on preventing diseases than cure. They emphasize more on health restoration, protection and maintenance using vaccinations, health screenings and physical examinations. The Indian public health providers are looking for a way to improve and offer the best health services to the communities. Sanitation and hygiene has been a major concern for the Indian government whereby they aim at improving water and food provisions in schools and also in public sectors such as hospitals.
The Indian government is also promoting health by offering health education to the public. Screening tests are being done in Indian to detect some diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. India as a nation is well equipped with modern health facilities both in private and public health care centers. Indians are also encouraged to seek medical diagnosis and counseling. These are some of the ways in which the country is helping in restoring, protecting and maintaining Indian’s health.
Indians are people who are modest and that is the reason why they prefer to have healthcare providers who are of the same sex (Hoffman 2006). Nigerians however have different health beliefs and traditions. Nigerians believe that spiritual, mental and physical qualities cannot be isolated from human health. They believe that having a sound health means that you are in agreement with the universe since life is a process. Nigerians believe that inborn diseases are as a result of dirty food, rain, heat and cold air.
They believe that demons and evil spirits are responsible for making people sick hence they seek opinions mainly from traditional healers whom they believe have the power to realize the evil spirits and demons. Nigerians have health policy set by the government with the main goal of attaining maximum health care to all the citizens (Spector, 2000). One of the ways in which Nigerians help in restoring, protecting and maintain the public health is by educating the public and holding campaigns against non-communicable and communicable disease. Nigerian government has also joined hands with World Health Organization to ensure that all the health services and promotions become successful.
The Middle Eastern communities however do have different beliefs and traditions from that of Indians and Nigerians. Arabs world is full of Muslims who mainly believe that superstitions of evil eye can cause diseases to the people. This is why you find that most people who come from Arab world put on incensed perfumes and bracelets to protect them from the evil eye. However, these customs and believes are vanishing as a result of rise in educational level among the Arab population.
The Arabs mainly emphasize on sound health maintenance through proper food nutrition and hygiene. Today, most Arabs will seek medical help after seeing the symptoms for the disease. The Arab community is fully aware of health promotion and prevention and that is why their government is offering free medical care in clinics and hospitals. Screening methods and immunizations are some of the ways people use to promote health strategies to prevent and detect illnesses.
In conclusion, this paper has mainly addressed the usefulness of applying heritage assessment in evaluating the needs of whole person. It also compares the differences in health traditions between Middle Eastern community’s culture, Nigerian culture and Indian culture addressing mainly their health maintenance, protection and restoration.
References
Edelman, K & Mandle, B. (2010). Benefits of Heritage Assessment tool. Penguin. Penguin Publishers.
Hoffman, B. (2006). Art and cultural heritage: law, policy, and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Probst, P. (2011). Osogbo and the Art of Heritage: Monuments, Deities, and Money. Indiana: Indiana University Press.
SPECTOR. (2000). CulturalCare: Guide to heritage assessment and health traditions (5th ed.).New York: Pearson Education/PH College.