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Chapter 4
Sociocultural Issues
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Learning Objectives
Compare the concepts of culture, ethnicity, and religion.
Explain the consequences of stereotyping mental health clients.
Describe seven characteristics of culture.
Identify three ways in which culture influences health and illness behaviors.
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Learning Objectives
List the six components of cultural assessment.
Explain the importance of recognizing clients’ spiritual or religious practices.
Identify four topics to be included in the assessment of a client who is a refugee.
Integrate cultural factors into a holistic plan of therapeutic care.
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4. The Nature of Culture (p. 30)
Culture is a total way of life.
Shared system of values that provides a framework for who we are
Race describes a group of people who share distinct physical characteristics.
Skin color, facial features
Ethnicity is associated with the customs, cultural habits, and socialization patterns of a particular group.
Values, traditions, expectations, and customs are passed from one generation to another.
Should any behavior be accepted because it is part of a client’s culture?
Give an example of a cultural behavior that is unacceptable. Defend your choice.
Give an example of a cultural behavior that is unpleasant to the staff and other clients but is acceptable. Explain why.
Are race and ethnicity the same? What are the differences?
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5. The Nature of Culture cont’d. (p. 30)
Spirituality and religion play important roles in the concept of culture.
Spirituality refers to belief in a power greater than any human being.
Religion relates to a defined, organized, and practiced system of worship.
Often mental health clients have religious components to their illnesses.
Can a behavior be considered unacceptable even if it is condoned by the patient’s religion?
What is an example of the above? Defend the choice.
Which is more important? Respecting a patient’s religious beliefs and practices or making sure health is not endangered?
The patient asks the nurse what his or her religious beliefs are. Is it acceptable for the nurse to discuss this?
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6. Characteristics of Culture (pp. 30-31)
Culture is an abstract concept, composed of the values, beliefs, roles, and norms of a group
Cultural values strongly influence thinking and actions.
A culture’s belief system develops over generations.
Formed by feelings and convictions that are believed to be
Can one person learn about another person’s culture? Are there parts of someone else’s culture that cannot be understood by an “outsider”?
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7. Characteristics of Culture cont’d. (p. 31)
Beliefs about mental health have a strong impact on outcomes of treatment.
Values and beliefs help to define norms, which are a culture’s behavioral standards.
Norms are the established rules of conduct that define which behaviors are encouraged, accepted, tolerated, and forbidden within a culture.
A role is an expected pattern of behaviors associated with a certain position, status, or gender.
Can a person be involved with more than one culture? Give an example.
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8. Characteristics of Culture cont’d. (p. 31)
Stereotype is an oversimplified mental picture of a cultural group.
Stereotyping may take negative, positive, or traditional forms.
Prejudice (extreme negative stereotyping)
Health care providers need to know and understand their own racial, ethnic, religious, and social stereotypes.
Define stereotyping.
List reasons why stereotyping is not appropriate in the mental health care setting.
Why might stereotypes be harmful?
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9. Characteristics of Culture cont’d. (p. 31)
Culture is a social phenomenon learned through life experiences and passed from generation to generation.
Culture is shared.
Culture reflects its members; it is dynamic, changing, and adaptive.
An individual’s behavior may or may not represent the culture.
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10. Influences of Culture (p. 31)
Health and illness beliefs
Western medicine
Folk medicine
Traditional health beliefs
Illness behaviors
Disease is a condition in which a physical dysfunction exists
Illness includes social, emotional, and intellectual dysfunctions.
Culture has no impact on disease, but illness and its attendant behaviors are strongly influenced by culture.
Name an example of how culture influences an individual’s expectations of the health care system.
It’s important to understand an individual’s culture, as well as the individual’s personality. How can you avoid being culturally insensitive? How can you avoid stereotyping a person based on culture?
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11. Influences of Culture cont’d. (pp. 31-32)
On mental illness
Clients and their care providers may have very different belief systems about mental disorders.
Members of a culture may define normal and abnormal behaviors differently from those outside the culture.
Cultural descriptions of mental dysfunction are classified as naturalistic illness or personalistic illness.
Why might one patient be quiet and withdrawn during illness, while another is very emotional? Could this be explained by cultural differences?
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12. Influences of Culture cont’d. (p. 32)
Stress and coping
Cultures classify members by gender and age.
In many cultures, adolescence can be a stressful time.
Women often are placed in stressful roles as a result of their cultures.
Ways of coping with stress are culturally determined.
List and describe ways that culture affects health and illness.
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13. Cultural Assessment (p. 34)
Health care providers should practice cultural competence.
Transcultural nursing
All care providers must guard against the tendency to transfer their own cultural expectations onto clients or to make generalizations based on their own cultural attitudes
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14. Cultural Assessment cont’d. (p. 35)
Cultural assessments allow us to learn how clients perceive and cope within their world.
Communication
Verbal and nonverbal components
Environmental control
How the individual perceives he or she controls the environment
Space, territory, and time
Space comforts, control over space, concept of time
Cultural assessment is important to helping improve the nurse-patient relationship. What parts of the cultural assessment can be done by asking the patient questions? Why?
What parts of the cultural assessment should not be done by asking the patient questions? Why?
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15. Cultural Assessment cont’d. (p. 36)
Social organization
Includes family and the meaning to the client of work, gender roles, friends, and religion
Biological factors
Biological or physical differences that exist among different cultural groups
Is it safe to make a cultural assessment based on gender, race, or age?
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16. Culture and Mental Health Care (p. 37)
Treating refugees
A refugee is a person who, because of war or persecution, flees from his or her home or country and seeks refuge elsewhere.
Stress-related problems are a factor.
Obtain immigration history and a history of arrival to the new country, time, and who or what was lost.
Refugees tend to have a greater incidence of depression, anxiety, and stress disorder.
What topics are part of the refugee assessment?
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Question 1
A learned pattern of behaviors, values, beliefs, and customs shared by a group of people is known as:
Ethnicity
Religion
A culture
A society
Correct Answer: 3
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Question 2
Cultural assessment focuses on six areas. Which of the following is not one of the six cultural assessment areas?
Communication
Environmental control
Space and territory
Visitation
Correct Answer: 4
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Question 3
The nurse is caring for a Chinese client. Which of the following best describes the Chinese culture regarding medicine?
Health is to reflect a balance of positive and negative energy forces.
Health is a gift from God.
Health is defined as the ability to work.
Health is defined as a state of harmony with nature.
Correct Answer: 1
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Question 4
Which group does not seek medical help for illness?
Hispanics
Christian Scientists
Anglo-Saxons
Navajo Indians
Correct Answer: 2
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Question 5
The nurse is working with a client who is a refugee. During the routine cultural assessment, the nurse should obtain all of the following information except:
Information about the immigration history
History of the flight and arrival in the new country
Time in the new country
Any criminal history
Correct Answer: 4
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