Introduction
The provision of mental health services to citizens is complicated by racial diversity. It leads to the inability of medical specialists to address the needs of specific population groups. This way, the culture of African American patients can become a barrier to high-quality treatment from Alzheimer’s disease (Clark et al., 2018). Therefore, the consideration of Stanford Health Care personnel’s experience through the lens of the Purnell model for cultural competence will shed light on the latter’s usefulness for such cases.
The Cultural Issue
The significance of the problem of African American citizens suffering from Alzheimer’s disease is explained by two factors. First, the United States population is rapidly aging, and the mentioned condition is the most typical for senior citizens (Clark et al., 2018). Second, older adults are more ethnically and racially diverse, with African Americans as one of the largest population groups (Clark et al., 2018). Hence, the identified cultural issue is critical for healthcare institutions.
The Reason for the Need of Study
The need to study the cultural aspect of the provision of healthcare services to African American patients is defined by their beliefs towards health, aging, and medicine. According to the researchers, medical personnel’s competency positively correlates with eliminating disparities between patients (Clark et al., 2018). In this way, they manage to deal with the lack of support of African American families, whose members suffer from the disease and inform them of its progression.
Purnell Model and its Components in the Study
The initiative of Stanford Health Care corresponds to the principles of the Purnell model. Thus, healthcare providers take action to instill a better understanding of the condition in the patient’s family through specific measures. They include home visits allowing not only to assess the compliance of care to one’s needs but also to receive extensive information on cultural factors that affect it (Clark et al., 2018).
In this way, specialists are focused on the components of the inner and outer circles (Purnell, 2016). The former relates to communication, family role, and common healthcare practices, whereas the latter considers the impact of community and society (Purnell, 2016). These measures help doctors to plan further treatment for the patients.
Results of the Study
As a result, the researchers concluded on several areas that improve the quality of healthcare for African Americans. The most important points were the increase in staff’s cultural competency, ensuring access to services, and building trust between patients and doctors (Clark et al., 2018). Moreover, they emphasized the need for patients and their families to be followed by a single gerontologist from pre-diagnosis to death (Clark et al., 2018). This way, the cultural specificities of African American citizens are addressed best.
Application of the Purnell Model to Mental Healthcare
The Purnell model of cultural competency can be applied to any mental disease in order to ensure the provision of services corresponding to one’s condition. It can be extremely beneficial for the task of finding a compromise between the needs of an individual in treatment and the impact of his community or society as a whole. Moreover, it indirectly helps the patients by increasing healthcare providers’ knowledge of the cultural specificities that might affect the scope and quality of provided services.
Conclusion
The example of African American citizens with Alzheimer’s disease is one of the many cases that can benefit from the implementation of the Purnell model. The coverage of both external and internal factors affecting one’s mental condition explains its usefulness for the field. The study results also add to the conclusion that the use of points indicated in the model can improve the overall outcome of the provision of healthcare services.
References
Clark, J. L., Phoenix, S., Bilbrey, A. C., McManis, T., Escal, K. A., Arulanantham, R., Sisay, T., & Ghatak, R. (2018). Cultural competency in dementia care: An African American case study. Clinical gerontologist, 41(3), 255-260. Web.
Purnell, L. (2016). Are we really measuring cultural competence?. Nursing Science Quarterly, 29(2), 124-127. Web.