Influenza and pneumonia
the health care provider. Each person comes from a unique culture and a unique socialization process.
The health care provider must be sensitive to his or her own perceptions of health and illness and the practices he or she employs. Even though the perceptions of most health professionals are based on a middle-class and medical-model viewpoint, providers must realize that there are other ways of regarding health and illness. The early chapters of this book are devoted to consciousness raising about self- treatment. It is always an eye-opening experience to publicly scrutinize ourselves in this respect. Quite often, we are amazed to see how far we stray from the system’s prescribed methods of keeping healthy. The journals confirm that we, too, delay in seeking health care and fail to comply with treatment regimens. Often, our ability to comply rests on quite pragmatic issues, such as “What is it doing for me?” and “Can I afford to miss work and stay in bed for two days?” As we gain insight into our own health–illness attitudes and behaviors, we tend to be much more sympathetic to and empathetic with the person who fails to come to the clinic or who hates to wait for the physician or who delays in seeking health care.