Cultural Identities In Mental Health Support: Understanding Differences And Building Harmony

Difference in cultural identities

The current assignment focuses upon the importance of cultural harmony and understanding in the context of a workplace. Within a workplace people from different communities and diverse geographical backgrounds need to interact and communicate. Thus, workplace diversity often results in a clash of interests between distinct groups of people.The present chapter focuses upon the difference in cultural identities at the place of work which further impacts the process of support giving to the people of diverse cultural values and knowledge. The chapter also focuses upon the cultural paradoxes possessed by people regarding disability and ageing.

A number of cultural differences are faced within a workplace attributed different set of beliefs and values possessed by the workforce within a workplace. In the present context, I worked as a mental health support worker in the Nightingale hospital, New Zealand.  During my apprenticeship I had to cater to the needs of the people from different cultural backgrounds. In my first experience I had to look after an 86 year old aboriginal lady who was suffering from advanced stage of dementia. The condition of the woman guaranteed that she had to be put upon round the clock intervention and support. However, there were a number of issues in providing optimum support and care services to the lady. First of all, the lady had limited or little knowledge of English. Therefore, belonging to an Indian background meant that I could only communicate to her in English. However, a number of impositions were implied over here due to language restrictions. Thus, the gap in communication affected the data collection procedure. Additionally, the false beliefs and myths possessed by the indigenous group of people would often mean that they would not readily ask for support services from the health care professionals. The Australian aboriginal people often believe disability to come along with age and are a normal process of life (Kelaher, 2014). Thus, during my service as a mental health support worker I found that the old aboriginal lady receiving care and support services from dementia possessed strong communal values and believed that her mental health disease was a common problem in her community and therefore did not need much attention.

I had different experiences with that of a Chinese indigenous man who was under mental health care services for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). The PSP here is a progressive neurodegenerative disease which reduces the normal volume of the brain by bringing about degeneration of the nerves (McDermott, BMC health services).  Thus, the cognition as well as decision making skills of the person are severely impaired making them dependent upon clinical support and interventions.  However, the indigenous Chinese people are found to belong to a different culture. The man here was under the impression that the deterioration in the health conditions could be attributed to the imbalance of Yan and Yin (positive and negative forces) in the body. These are mainly traditional Chinese beliefs where a person finds oneself and their actions responsible for the deterioration in their health conditions.

In this respect the cultural beliefs of the indigenous Chinese and the aboriginal lay receiving the care and support services for mental health issues had been compared with the Indian views regarding health.  The aboriginal lady over here had been suffering from dementia, however the lady emphasizes that many in her community had been suffering from the same peril. Therefore, she considers her situation to be within the normal limits and is sceptical about medical interventions. The Chinese man on the other hand demands that the deterioration in the condition of his mental health could be attributed to the imbalances of yin yan in the body. However, both the Australian aboriginal woman and the Chinese man show string affluence of their cultural values and belief on their present conditions of health (Gibson, 2015).

Comparison of different cultures with own culture

The same could be compared with Indian belief and values about health. India being a diverse nation where people from different cultures, languages and history co-habit, differences are often noticed in their health beliefs (Berger, 2014). Most of the times the opinions are based upon the amount or the type of knowledge presented to a particular section and class of people. The lack of sufficient quantity of knowledge about a particular health issue might generate anxieties within the people (Shepherd, 2016). However, the culture and the faith possessed by different religion and community deeply affect the health behaviour and approach undertaken by an individual.

With reference to the Indian context, a number of health issues are faced which have a profound effect on the health belief of the people. The vast and the ever growing population of the Indian subcontinent put a huge amount of pressure on the medical interventions and resources (Ahern, 2015). However, comparatively the numbers of health professionals are limited which results in the provision of short or few minutes visit by the health care professional. In this context, the expenses involved are high which acts as hindrances in availing of the required health care services.

There are a number of important attributes which needs to be taken into consideration for supporting people with different cultural identities. Therefore, practising as a mental health support worker I need to be familiarised with the diverse cultural beliefs and approaches of the patients.  However, one of the most important aspects of provision of care and support services to the culturally and linguistically Different (CALD) group of people is the use of effective communication approaches (Hinton, 2015). The Australian aboriginal lady here was little convinced of the fact that her dementia needed treatment and solely attributed the same to community prevalence. The Chinese man on the other hand would simply want to stick to his conventional approaches to medication rather than following aggressive diagnostic and treatment interventions.  

Therefore, a number of ethical challenges are faced by the support workers in providing support and care services to CALD groups. The patient here may not be willing to follow the guidelines or the health care implications suggested by the care professional. This may result in generation of conflict within a clinical setup from disagreements of welfare interests of the support users from that of the care providers. Moreover, the implementation of some of the important legislations such as the Mental Health capacity Act, 2005, possesses a number of limitations within the mental health care set up (Kirmayer, 2013).

 The implementation of the act calls for provision of sufficient autonomy and power to the support service users. However, in this respect the cognitive power and decision making skills of the support user is affected. This demands for additional amount of dependency on the care and support services. However, intervening with the patient autonomy could result in situations of conflict within a hospital setup (Panaretto, 2014). Thus, working as a mental health support worker I need to interact with the patient and the family members of the patient in a manner to help them understand the positive implications of certain health care approaches. This is in lieu with the policy of informed decision making where the support users and their respective families need to involved in the process of care planning. However, a number of limitations might be faced in this regard which involves difference of language which makes understanding the conditions of the patient difficult. Language often becomes a barrier in addressing the diverse needs of the CALD groups (Erez, 2013). Therefore, as a mental health support worker I need to work upon my linguistic abilities for communications better with the patients. Additionally, use of effective and evidence based communication tools such as SBAR can help in assessment of the loopholes within the services and practices (Díaz, 2015).

Impact of supporting people with different cultural identities

There are different cultural view and beliefs regarding the concepts of disability and ageing in people from different cultural backgrounds. In this context, some refer to age related diseases as one of the inevitable and normal processes of life. Therefore, as seen in the context of the indigenous Australian lady the dementia was a part of the normal cycle of ageing and did not need medical intervention. Similarly, the Chinese man would refer to the disability brought about by supranuclear palsy as an aftermath for the good or bad actions he has committed in his life (Shildrick, 2013).  Therefore, the cultural identities can have a strong and profound effect on the health beliefs of an individual. The presences of such myths mostly prevent people from sharing their concerns and availing of the required services (Mudge, 2016). Therefore, a number of factors could be mentioned over here which acts as a catalyst in such cases.

The lack of knowledge along with additional prejudice can act as deterrence. Additionally, economic conditions of an individual also impact upon the health practices and beliefs in an individual. Therefore, providing the patients with sufficient health education can help in removing such cultural paradoxes and false beliefs from their minds.

In this context, a number of steps and initiatives taken up by the government can serve as important measures. Thus, implementation of programs and policies emphasizing upon the importance of education in the context of the establishment of adequate health measures can serve the purpose of generating awareness in the patient. Therefore, working as a mental health support worker I think implementation of educational seminars along with conferences could help in highlighting within people the need for approaching health care services for complex medical needs and demands.

Conclusion

The current study focuses upon advocating workplace practices respecting different cultural identities. Thus, a number of challenges are faced by a professional working within an organization interacting with different groups of people. In this respect, language often becomes a restriction in accessing the diverse cultural ethics and principles of the workforce within an organization. Additionally, a number of cultural paradoxes are also faced in the context of working with diverse groups and class of people.

For the present assignment Australian aboriginal and the Han Chinese group of people are taken into consideration. Therefore, belonging to an Indian origin working with clients of Australian and Chinese culture would result in a lot of hindrances. The hindrances are mostly offered with respect to language and cultural differences. Thus, sufficient participation from state and federal level governments can help in meeting the demands and health concerns of the indigenous group of people. Additionally, involvement of a medical interpreter can help in resolving the diverse languages of the ethnic community groups.

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