Source: National Center for Health Statistics

Alzheimer’s disease Septicemia

Source: National Center for Health Statistics. (2010). Health, United States, 2010: With Special Feature on Death and Dying. Hyattsville, MD. 2011: Author, pp. 145–146. Retrieved from www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus10.pdf, November 15, 2011.

 

 

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little awareness that deep problems may underlie this “exemplary” behavior. Ignorance on the part of health care workers may cause the patient a great deal of suffering.

Much action has been taken in recent years to make Western health care more available and appealing to the Asian populations. In Boston, for example, there is a health clinic staffed primarily by Chinese dialects–speaking, and other Asian languages nurses and physicians who work as paid employees and as vol- unteers. Most of the common health-related pamphlets have been translated into Chinese languages and into Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian, and they are distributed to the patients. Booklets on such topics as breast self-examination and smoking cessation are available. Since the languages spoken in the clinic are Mandarin Chinese, other dialects and languages the problem of interpreters has been largely eliminated. The care is personal, and the patients are made to feel comfortable. Unnecessary and painful tests are avoided as much as possible. In addition, the clinic, which is open for long hours, provides social services and employment placements and is quite popular with the community. Although it began as a part-time, storefront operation, the clinic is now housed in its own building.

The following is a synopsis of cultural beliefs regarding mental health and illness, possible causes of mental illness, and methods of preventing mental ill- ness among people of Asian origin. Lack of knowledge or skills in mental health therapy is seen in the Asian communities, as mental illness is much ignored in medical classics. Two points must be noted: the importance placed on the fam- ily in caring for the mentally ill and the tendency to identify mental illness in somatic terms. There is a tremendous amount of stigma attached to mental ill- ness. Asian patients tend to come to the attention of mental health workers late in the course of their illness, and they come with a feeling of hopelessness (Lin, 1982, pp. 69–73).

One example of cross-cultural therapy is the Japanese practice of Morita therapy. This 70-year-old treatment originated from a treatment for shinkeishitsu, a form of compulsive neurosis with aspects of neurasthenia. The patient is separated from the family for 1 to 2 weeks and taught that one’s feel- ings are the same as the Japanese sky and instantly changeable. One cannot be responsible for how one feels, only for what one does. At the end of therapy, the patient focuses on what is being done and less on his or her inner feelings, symptoms, concerns, or obsessive thoughts (Yamamoto, 1982, p. 50). In addi- tion, there are countless culture-bound mental HEALTH syndromes that may be identified in the Asian communities:

■ Korea—Hwa-byung—a syndrome attributed to the suppression of an- ger is known as “anger syndrome”; symptoms include insomnia, indi- gestion, and dyspnea.

■ China—Koro—the occurrence of sudden, intense anxiety when a man believes his penis is folding into his body (Fontaine, 2003, p. 119).

■ Japan—Taijin kyofusho—intense anxiety about possibly offending oth- ers (Office of the Surgeon General (U.S.); Center for Mental Health

 

 

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Services (U.S.); National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.). Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity: A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (U.S.); 2001 Aug. Chapter 1. Introduction).

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