AFRICAN HEALTH CULTURE Presented by

Anthony WallaceP.C.D.I. Healthcare and Consultants' of Texas

INTRODUCTION • This presentation is intended to educate the viewers

regarding our healthcare system versus minority health. The topic chosen pertains not only to African Americans, but to other minorities as well.

• The presentation will give the reader knowledge regarding public health initiatives as it relates to the low-income populations, assess poverish and environmental challenges, and limited prevention education within the black and minority neighborhoods.

• We will also discover the CLAS standards, religion and its effects on population health goals and community support.

DISCLAIMER• This presentation will educate the public regarding health lifestyles

of the African-American population.

• The presentation will educate the consumers on medical slave history, lifestyle habits, family and culture, primary religious practices, and lastly dietary habits.

• There will be terminology and medical techniques that may offend some audiences. The presentation is meant to educate and inform the public of the past and how we can become healthier people.

• As always, please share all information with your primary care physician when applying any form of alternative techniques in your wellness journey. Applying alternative techniques without professional guidance can cause set backs in care, unwanted side effects, and even death. Take care and be in good health.

DEFINITIONS • MD – Medical Doctor

• ND – Naturopathic Doctor

• PHN – Public Health Nurse (RN)

• LMSW – Master Licensed Social Worker

• NCCAM – National Centers for Contemporary and Alternative Medicine.

• CLAS – Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services

• QSEN – Quality and Safety Education for Nurses

• CDC – Centers for Disease Control

• SCD – Sickle Cell Disease

• DM – Diabetes Mellitus

• HTM – Hypertension

DEFINITIONS • Ethics – Policies and administrative laws that govern a particular practice

(i.e. law, medicine, business).

• Witch Doctor – this is referred to as the traditional medical practitioner (TMP). This person is the highest in the tribe secondary to the royal family. This is not only the medical professional but the priest as well.

• Disparities – Diseases that may affect a culture or group that causes acute or chronic deaths.

• Resource Management – This is a list of other organizations that partner with the primary organization to care for the patient (i.e. city services, HIV testing services, charitable organizations, churches)

• Quackery – This is a term used to signify incompetence or dangerous practice. This is a very harsh word to use when describing medical practitioners.

• CAM – Contemporary and Alternative Medicine (i.e. naturopathy, homeopathy, Chinese medicine, chiropractic, and acupuncture).

CULTURE AND HEALTH DYNAMICS• According to dictionary.com, culture is defined as the

behaviors and belief characteristics of a particular social, ethnic, or age group.

• Culture and healthcare services are joint ventures in aiding the sick and the poor against disparities. As clinicians, we must look past racial backgrounds and treat our patients as equal partners in their wellness journey.

• There are culture as well as interracial that may contribute to healthcare science in relation to new genetic disorders, susceptible immunotative environmental diseases (SIED), and pharmakinetics metabolistic research.

CULTURAL SENSITIVITY IN HEALTHCARE

• Relationships are the building blocks that we establish as practitioners of health during the consultation, intermediate treatment phases, and end of treatment discharging.

• Cultural aspects in the American-American community can differ from one person to the next. There are no two individuals the same in their characteristic. One person does not represent the whole culture but one aspect; they are black.

• Cultural sensitivity is the awareness of one’s individuality that impacts another culture. We must look at our gestures, our speech and tone, and our knowledge of class within the cultures.

• In the African-American community, there is really not a special consideration when caring for patients in this community, but respect. There are religious sects such as Islamic, the brother and sisterhood, and paganism. Respect of ones religion is determined between it participants on the rights and privileges.

CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY APPROPRIATE SERVICES

• When caring for patients within the African culture, it is best to be familiar with the medicinal background.

• Never under any circumstances deny a patient the right to see their tradition doctor (witch doctor).

• This has been a trade market within the tribes in Africa. The witch doctor the practitioner within the tribe. If there is a disagreement with the witch doctor’s treatments, it is best to tell the witch doctor along and not in front of his tribe. This is very disrespectful.

• We must assess the patient’s primary language, the treatments by traditional doctors and their actions, and willingness to trust our facility care regimen.

• CLAS Standards Explanation Video

• The video will give you more detailed information about the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS).

CASE SCENARIO• A nurse is taking care of a 45-

year old African-American male with a chief complaint of stomach pains.

• The patient is 5’2 with a gross weight of 250lbs but otherwise appears to have no other symptoms.

• The patient is in need of professional care as illustrated in the side. The misconception of care is that the patient is in need of the care because of his weight. On the other hand, the patient may perceive mistrust within the American healthcare system due to racial discrimination or past generational past experiences.

CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY APPROPRIATE SERVICES

• Facility administrators must properly assess their surrounding communities (program assessment)to ensure proper resource management at the start of the program.

• We need to establish resource policies and procedures to facilitate community needs (i.e. language barriers, low-income population, and limited resources).

• Administrative staff must monitor the neighborhood for objective changes in disparities to educate, inspire others to change unhealthily habits, and evaluate program initiatives to build on new programs in the future.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN LEADING DISPARITIES STATISTICS

• Sickle Cell Anemia (SCD)

• SCD affects 900,000 to 100,000 Americans.

• Hypertension (HTN)

• 66.3 % of blacks and Mexican Americans are more likely to have hypertension.

• Diabetes Mellitus (sweet urine)

• Diabetes strikes about 24 million people worldwide. 57 million Americans are considered pre-diabetes. In addition, 5.7 million people are unaware they have diabetes.

• Taken from the CDC website(2011), retrieved from www.cdc.gov .

MEDICAL TECHNIQUES • Conventional Techniques

• This form of practice can only be performed by an MD/DO.

• This form of practice will use pharmaceuticals to aid in the patient healing journey. The options of alternative medicine are limited.

• The only form of TCM that is used in the form of medical techniques is conventional naturopathy (NMD), which is an approach to combining both practices into one discipline. NMDs can only practice in some states but it is still illegal to practice in Texas.

• Conventional methods of lavatory analysis similar to the traditional methods, but differ in collection techniques and meanings.

• Traditional Techniques

• This form of medicine uses earth, wind, and water to aid in treating patients. Traditional Naturopathy may aid the patient by diagnoses, sensitivity and allergies, and herbal compounding as a medicinal intervention.

• Herbals and dietary changes are similar in both disciplines, but it is an essential practice in natural medicine. Environmental factors play a sufficient role in the patients healing (i.e. sun bathing, fresh water, air purification.

• The video on the next slide will tell you more detailed information regarding both disciplines and how they similar in techniques.

DIETARY CONTRIBUTION TO DISEASE • The African-American diet

is filled will pork fat, salt, sugar, and in some cases MSG (magnesium salts).

• Many minorities are subject to high blood pressure, diabetes, and other blood diseases because of diet.

• In some cases it is hard financially afford high quality food that promotes health; it’s so expensive.

• This video will give the client some insight on dietary wellness without the use of many supplements, but getting back to nature.

• Proper Health from Food Sources Video

• This video will educate the community regarding dietary changes to improve health.

RELIGION AND HEALTH PROMOTION • I believe that we can address healthcare disparities within the church.

Most parishioners will ignore the practitioners and believe that God will heal them. God is a healer but he also put practitioners here to help aid in education and prevention.

• Health promotion is a cohesive, integrated, and comprehensive approach to healthcare considering the distribution of health outcomes within a population, the health determinants that influences distribution of care, and the polices and intervention that impact and are impacted by the determinants (Nash et. al, 2011).

• A health promotion plan is essential to a successful program. Religion plays a sufficient role in parishioner participation. Most parishioners will accept the practitioners advice if it is associated with the biblical principals.

• We must teach our religious community even though being diagnosed with a particular disease, this does not mean that the devil is attacking. We must educate our community on unhealthy lifestyles and the consequence as a result.

HEALTHCARE RELATIONSHIP THEORY

HEALTHCARE RELATIONSHIP THEORY• According to the powerpoint presentation healthcare ministry, we

have a duty to educate, inspire, and help those that are in need.

• Social service workers are key to ensuring patients are not alone. Administrators need to establish policy and procedure in assessment theory. We must screen the patient appropriately to ensure that the right services are being extended. We need to prevent waste of essential resources.

• This my educated theory that I feel appropriate for rendering services to the community. We must first determine the patients education level regarding their disease. Most patients will tell the practitioner about their faith in healing (i.e. I don’t receive that in the name of Jesus). We must educate our parishioners to accept the issues, pray for healing, and conduct the treatment needed to cure the element.

HEALTHCARE RELATIONSHIP THEORY• The patient, once diagnosed, must

receive resources immediately. There are many discipline’s that may contribute to the patients wellness journey.

• We can implement mental health counseling services, public health nursing services, health educator or community health workers, and other outside ministries.

• These are essential in caring for the patient. There must be a plan of thought and execution in order to extend arms to the community(i.e. administrative review, consultant review, media coverage, and the workforce to implement the plan of course).

SPECIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM • Launching healthcare programs can

become a harder task without financial backing. Grants offered by the government can add extra working capital along with private donations.

• City services, regional services offered by the state, and professional expert staff may save revenue to enhance your contribution into the community

• Having good resource management policies and procedures may save the agency from wasteful time and energy due to unqualified individuals.

• There are organizations that are race-related and may provide expert information regarding disease management, question and answer segments, research data and statistics.

NATUROPATHIC RECOMMENDATIONS• In African–American health, we must

address the stereotyping on both side.

• Most black/minority patients do not want to go into the hospital due to fear of mistreatment and prejudice, misinformed experimentation, low coverage or no insurance, and no supportive services offered to them.

• The nursing and medical staff in some cases assume you are on Medicaid services, unemployed or employed minimum wage, and angry black man syndrome.

• These are not true at all when approaching African-Americans about their health. Most want to be informed , while others do not care. There are many characteristics in every race. It is just this one may stick out.

REFERENCES• Terrell, K. (2011). Study: Income, Not Race, Maybe the Biggest Predictor in

Health Habits, black entertainment television. retrieved from http://www.bet.com/news/health/2011/12/08/study-income-not-race-may-be-the- biggest-predictor-in-health-habits.html

• Timmons, S. (2010). African-American Church Health Programs: What Works?, Vol. 27(2), Journal of Christian Nursing, pg 100-105

• NCCAM. (2011). A link Between Omega-6 and Chronic Disease-Does Ancestry Play a Role, National Institute of Health. Retrieved from http://nccam.nih.gov/research/results/spotlight/053011.htm?nav=gsa.

• CDC. (2013). Racial Ethnic Disparities in the Awareness, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension-United States, 2003- 2010, Vol. 62(18), Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6218a2.htm?s_cid=mm6218a2_w.

• Harper, D. (2010). Culture. Retrieved from dictonaray.com, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/culture

REFERENCES• Air mail Music. (1996). Percussions d’Afrique: African

Drums. Productions Sunset France, FR, Melodie Distribution.

• Wallace, A, (2011), Food From proper food sources, PCDI Healthcare and Consultants. Retrieved from YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n80E1DLkdbM.

• Nash, D., Reifsnyder, J., Fabius, R., Pracilio, V (2011), Population Health: Creating A Culture of Wellness, Sudbury, MA, Jones and Bartlett Learning

• U.S. Department of Humans Services, (2013), The National CLAS Standards. Retrieved from http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=

2&lvlID=15.