Culture and Health Care
The black/African American population is one of the unique ethnic groups in Unite States. Most of the descendants of the US slaves are mixed up with the European as well as the Native American blood. The Black/African descendants thus came in United States forcibly as they were held captive in US as from 1555 up to 1865.These ethnic communities in the US have been faced with health problems over the years and they have become susceptible to various diseases as well as illnesses. Cultural diversity among the US population has contributed to the ill health condition among the Black Americans. This paper therefore will first have an in depth discussion on the Black/African American culture, their history, religion, social organization, sustenance and population data in connection with the health focus. The paper will also examine and discuss some of these cultural factors that have affected negatively the health, health care service deliveries and viewpoints on treatment, illness and values that are interconnected with these cultural factors.
According to a census report in 2015 from the census bureau, it was estimated that the Black/African population demography was 46,282,080. These Black Americans were living in the United States and is to show that they to a 14.3% of the total US population. This not only includes the black only but also includes the black in combination with another race. However, the black only contributed to about 42.6 million which is a 13.3% of the total US population. They are thus the second largest minority ethnic group as they follow the Hispanic population. Black/African population mostly lived in the South in 2015 with a smaller percent of the white population living in the south. Most of the Black/African population has at least earned a high school diploma with more women than men attaining a bachelor’s degree (Mandal et al 2013).
The unemployment rate of the black Americans is twice than that of the whites as most of them work in other services such as the repair and maintenance firms. They also participate mostly in the laundry service which is the largest sector of the businesses for most of the Black/African Americans women. Health care and social assistance is the second largest business sector that the Black/African Americans women and a small population of black men engage in. Another proportion of the Black/African Americans population are involved in the administrative sector, support sector, waste management services , remediation, transportation, professional work technical support sector, warehouse services and the scientific department. There is also a number of the black population that is involved in serving their nation as they are in military in United States.
The value of religion among the African American society and their religious participation has become part of their structure in the life and cultural ways of the older African Americans. Church based programs are used in ensuring that there is social integration for the older black Americans. These programs also enhance the building of society based infrastructure for helpful as well as health connected services. Through the provision of these services in the black American society, the churches has acted as supplements to the informal family care giving and are thus leveled to refer to other society based agencies. The frequencies at which the churches are attended have contributed in impacting the care received to the black Americans society.
Black/African Americans are usually found in every level of the American population. However, a vast majority of the black population are mostly found outside of the social culture of the dominant society in the US. The Black/African Americans have been able to advance into the American culture against all odds and they are determined as they have had to go beyond the economic disaster over time. There has been a higher rate of discrimination by the whites on the Black/African Americans but it has reduced overtime but not entirely. Places like the private clubs, social functions, and in some of the organizations, the Black Americans have been discriminated. Nonetheless, the Black Americans have been able to challenges most of the rules and regulations that have been established and implemented to limit their choices as well as freedom. Major players and activists have emerged over time to fight for equal rights among the Black/African Americans (Anderson et al 2004). There is no official social organization of the black Americans population with any mass movement that voices out their interests of the majority of the black population. At national level, the national association for the advancement of colored people is the closest organization that brings sense of right and wrong in response to acts of oppression, discrimination as well as racism for the black Americans. However, at local level, many communities have committees of elders who are responsible for contributing towards humanity. The black Americans political organization is one that allows them to participate freely in the democratic as well, as the republican national parties. Social conflicts among the black Americans are resolved using the Black/African Americans community legal system with a strong advocacy or the use of consensus at first.
The Black/African population mostly relies on the Medicaid, public health insurance under the affordable care act as most of them are uninsured. However the whites in the US population mostly have the private heath insurances. The death rate of the Black/African Americans is generally higher than that of the whites as they are mostly diagnosed with heart diseases, stroke, influenza, asthma, diabetics, homicide as well as HIV/AIDS. These are deadly diseases that strike the Black/African Americans more strongly than they do on the white Americans.
The cause of these diseases on the Black/African Americans is as a result of genes formation, social economic status and their environment in which they are living. Social economic disparities among the Black/African Americans contribute to their ill health. Social economic status on the other hand plays a major role in the mental health of the black Americans as most of them are homeless, imprisoned and has a high tendency to substance abuse. This therefore puts them to a greater risk of having a poor mental health. However, over the years, progress has been made but racism cases have yet continued to impact negatively on the mental wellbeing of the Black/African Americans.
Most of the black Americans are faced with psychological distress as compared to the whites. This is because most of the black Americans live in poverty and thus they are likely to have stress that attributes to most of them committing suicide hence an increase in suicidal cases among the black Americans. They are also victims of serious violent crimes across all ages thus they are a higher risk of being diagnose with post traumatic stress disorder.
Therefore it is important to note that racial as well as ethnic health disparities are the core factors undermining our society and the health system. Thus it is essential for all people to work together towards improving our health care system so as to make it a high quality, all-inclusive, accessible and within everyone’s means. Other structural factors such as poor transport facilities for the black Americans, inconvenient in time schedule of appointments with health specialists due to rigid work schedules, excessive time delays whole at the waiting rooms affects an individual negatively. Thus they are unable to and unwilling to get the health care that they ought to have and thus emergency cases have continued to increase day in day out with inadequate care as well as inability to control and prevent the continuity of the health care which is essential for good health.
Significant health inequalities cause illness such as the sexually transmitted diseases is the most occurring among the black/African Americans and especially the youths. Infant mortality is another health problem that is associated with health disparities in the black Americans population. This is majorly experienced in Michigan where the infant mortality rate averages that of the national mortality in infants. Nevertheless, the life expectancy has continued to improve as time goes by among all the Americans, but it is unfortunate that the low life expectancy among the black/African Americans has remained constant over the years. The death rate among them is thus dependent on the state of their living as the American state is experiencing a crisis in the health care system which is greatly affecting the black/African Americans’ Community (Mandal et al 2013).
Their unfortunate disparity in health care in terms of in-affordability, inaccessibility, racism and cultural diversity, are not making the black Americans vulnerable to diseases and illness but they are as well highly likely to die from these illness and diseases. The environment to which these black/African Americans are working is also a contributing factor to the ill health situation among the black American community and mostly among the black American men. Most of these men die before their life expectancy age due to higher cases of homicides as well as the recent surge in the HIV/AIDS pandemic (Braveman et al 2009). Lower incomes and poverty link strongly with the increased rate in obesity cases among the black American society is a result of inaccessibility to nutritious and calorie dense free foods since they are quite expensive. Thus they are only able to afford to provide foods that have a less nutritional value which are not healthy. The black students are on the other hand unable to afford breakfast daily as compared to their white colleagues and this factor contributes to the less healthy eating habit and pattern hence causing weight gains and poorer performance even in schools (Mandal et al 2013).
Most of the black Americans have limited places such as parks and playgrounds where they can be able to physically engage themselves. Following this limited accessibility to safer places that can enhance physical fitness, most of the black Americans suffer overweight problems and mostly black American children (Caprio et al 2008).
The rich cultural diversity in the US as presented quite a big challenge for the health care professionals. Cultural competency is thus essential in solving of these challenges as it involves the understanding, the appreciation as well as respect for these cultural practices, values and diversity of the black Americans so as to be able to deliver equal and efficient healthcare services. Therefore there must be integral approach utilization amongst the health care professional and the diverse patient backgrounds. Valuable information about the Black/African American culture will be essential in ensuring that quality health care is administered unto these people and that a specific treatment strategy that can address both the specific as well as desired goals are established. The valuable information about their culture, their way of doing things, eating, religion and their cultural aspect is essential to understand as a health provider. It is also important for health practitioners to be able to determine the various differences among the patients through examining their intercultural interactions as well as interventions. Culture education in clinical care is a precious resource for practicing healthcare for the health care professionals and the practitioners. This will enable the mental health care professionals to be able to address the issue of the high rate of mental illness among the black Americans and thus they will be able to offer and deliver adequate services to them. Online databases, handouts and case studies on the culture of the black Americans are quite essential as they will help in informing and educating the health practitioners and professionals on the culture of the black Americans thus allowing them to offer accessible, affordable care and be able to discourage racism as it affects their health. These sources of information will also enable them to identify some of the problems in their culture such as the eating patterns which have contributed to various diseases among them and thus they are able to offer health education on eating patterns and eating healthy among the Black Americans. Attitude, insight and behavior are among the most essential deliberations that the health care sector, practitioners and professionals should consider wile examining the physical exercise, diet as well as good health among the Black Americans (Geyen 2012). Their change in viewpoints and behavior towards the black American community is a good start for the health providers as it will bring about good outcomes and improved health habits. It is also the role of the African American to ensure that they adjust to changes that can promote healthy results and reduce disparities as they still embrace their culture.
In conclusion, African Americans should therefore consistently embrace their culture at the same time as they effect behavior changes in diet and exercises that has a positive impact on their health lifestyle. However, medical practitioners should also participate in ensuring the well being of the patients and immigrants who has different cultural diversity. This can be enhanced through identification of exceptional cultural, social as well as religious issues that are connected to the African American culture. In doing this the health professionals and practitioners deliver more culturally sensitive and efficient care to the black American patients. Opportunities are therefore shaping the new concepts and specific understanding about the complexity and influence of culture in Black/African American culture and they help in improving the health interventions for this Black American population. This will reduce the diseases, increase life expectancy and reduce substance abuse among the black American society.
References
Geyen D.J (2012). Behavioral Changes for African Americans To Improve Health, Embrace Culture, and Minimize Disparities. ECI Interdisciplinary Journal for Legal and Social Policy: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 2.
Mandal A, Scott J, Islam N.K & Mandal P.K. (2013). Factors Affecting African-American Health: Empowering the Community with Health Literacy. J Bioprocess Biotech 3
Anderson, N. B., Bulatao, R. A., Cohen, B., on Race, P., & National Research Council. (2004). Race/Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Status, and Health.
Braveman, P., An, J., Williams, D., & Egerter, S. (2009). Race and socioeconomic factors affect opportunities for better health.
Caprio, S., Daniels, S. R., Drewnowski, A., Kaufman, F. R., Palinkas, L. A., Rosenbloom, A. L., ... & Kirkman, M. S. (2008). Influence of race, ethnicity, and culture on childhood obesity: implications for prevention and treatment. Obesity, 16(12), 2566-2577.
