Transcultural Issues Research Articles

Cultural Health Practices and its Impact on MCH Care: Perspective of Tribal Women of Himachal Pradesh (India)

Maternal and Child Health Care (MCH) is essential for achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. Delivering quality primary care to tribal populations is always challenging, which is the case in India. Cultural practices are often implicated in determining MCH care. This study aimed to explore the existing cultural health practices in tribal areas and its impact on MCH care among tribal women of Himachal Pradesh. In this exploratory study qualitative research approach was adopted. Women of reproductive age group (18-49 years) were selected through stratified sampling techniques from selected tribal areas of district Sirmour (Himachal Pradesh). Data was collected through Focused Group Discussion (FGDs) and Colaizzi method was used for data analysis. The study findings revealed inadequate exclusive breastfeeding, antenatal beliefs, faulty dietary habits, unhealthy practices, less exposure to sunlight, quack treatment and trans cultural issues. In addition, early marriages and inadequate usage of family planning deeply entrenched in cultural values and influence of traditional or spiritual healers etc. refrain them from adequately availing provisions of MCH. Maternal and child mortality is firmly related to certain cultural practices, which create constraints for women seeking maternal and child care. Hence, it is imperative to create awareness regarding impact of cultural practices on MCH care and need to address the health concerns among tribal women to reduce maternal & child mortality rate.

Implementation of an Advanced Nursing Practice to advance transcultural healthcare: A practical development project

Implementation of an Advanced Nursing Practice to advance transcultural healthcare: A practical development project Abstract. Background: Patients and staff with different cultural backgrounds encounter each other in different roles at the children's hospital. Cultural differences are at the heart of misinterpretations and misunderstandings that can result in errors and prolong hospitalisation. Aim: To meet the challenges of reaching a common understanding in trans-cultural care, improve empowerment and ensure adequate treatment of children and family alike we introduced an ANP trans-cultural care team (ANP-TKV). Methods: The role of the ANP-TKV team was conceived as a project, encompassing a stakeholder and risk analysis, defining of the organisation, the setting of milestones, resources and controlling, as well as establishing an information concept. Results: The project concept successfully integrated and consolidated the APN-TKV team into our hospital activity. The team is now regularly consulted to manage complex trans-cultural situations, sensitises diverse professional groups and initiates professional inputs. It also provides helpful material and is able to anticipate potential current trans-cultural issues. Discussion: The evidence-based work of the ANP-TVK team has exerted positive effects on therapeutic teams as well as patients and their families and initiates a cultural change within the hospital. It is now an operative addition to the hospital's strategic commission. Further development of the meaning of trans-cultural and the question of allocation of financial and time resources to the APN-TKV team are presently under review.

Rewriting the Western: Transnational Dimensions and Gender Fluidity in Sebastian Barry’s Days without End

The present essay will explore the Irish writer Sebastian Barry’s transnational rendering of the American West in his novel Days without End (2016), emphasizing his representation of neglected western questions and realities and his revision of traditional western tropes and archetypes. Barry’s approach to the American West in Days without End moves beyond the regional and national imagery of this territory, revealing its international and hybrid properties and its multiple and overlapping cultures. It is argued that Barry’s recreation of a different reality from the traditional western monomyth of masculinity, individualism, and Anglo-American conquest allows him to challenge classical frontier narratives and to address international and transcultural issues, such as gender fluidity. The novel, whose main protagonist and narrator is a poor, homosexual Irish immigrant, embraces a different West, questioning romanticized versions of the westward expansion and drawing interesting connections between the Irish immigrants in this region and the Native Americans. Overall, Days without End may be viewed as an acute depiction of the transnational dimension of the American West, proving the power of the Western to overcome its traditional formulaic and mythic boundaries and to travel across global spaces.

Mentoring and Role Modelling in Educational Administration and Leadership: Neoliberal/globalisation, Cross-cultural and Transcultural Issues

Many, if not most, of my writing comes from experience, as it does for many scholars – either observing situations and events, being among those involved in these, and the many discussions with students and colleagues about the experiences they have gone through in many countries I have visited or worked in. This topic of mentoring and the related role of role modelling initially came to me shortly after doing my doctorate in a mentoring mode with Christopher Hodgkinson in Canada, and my ideas about this were reinforced when I was mentored in informal postdoctoral work with Wolfgang Mommsen in Germany in the 1990s.

Early intervention for everyone? A review of cross-cultural issues and their treatment in ultra-high-risk (UHR) cohorts

Over the past 20 years, early management of psychosis has become both a research and policy priority. In Western countries, psychotic disorders appear more prevalent in migrant and minority ethnic groups than in native or dominant groups. Moreover, disparities exist in health conditions and access to care among immigrants and minority ethnic groups, compared with native-born and majority groups. Appropriate early detection tools are necessary for the different groups. This systematic review provides a synthesis of the assessment and discussion of transcultural issues in ultra-high-risk (UHR) cohorts. The Medline database was searched via PubMed for peer-reviewed articles published in English from 1995 to 2017. All 79 studies included are prospective UHR cohort studies that used the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States (CAARMS). In UHR cohort studies that used the CAARMS, transcultural data (native language, ethnicity, place of birth, migration) are rarely collected, and inadequate ability to speak the dominant language is a common exclusion criterion. When they are included, the CAARMS scores differ between some minorities and the native-born majority group. This systematic review demonstrates barriers to the access to participation in early intervention research for migrants and ethnic minorities. This selection bias may result in lower validity for the CAARMS among these populations and thus in inadequate intervention programmes. Along with targeted studies, minorities' access to participation in UHR cohorts should be improved through 3 tools: interpreters at recruitment and for administration of CAARMS, a guide to cultural formulation and transcultural data collection.

Transcultural issues in diagnostic process

Diagnostic systems and methods must respond to patients’ diversity in expressions of mental distress, social and cultural context and the meanings given to illness. Due to increasing migration and globalisation the challenge of considering diagnosis in the context of culture has become increasingly significant in Europe. And globalization has further led to changes in value systems and our awareness of patients with ethnic minority background.Over recent decades, there has been an increasing development of psychiatric diagnosing with nosological categorisation combined with multi-axial schemas. Diagnosis, besides identifying a disorder and distinguishing one disorder from another disorder - differential diagnosis, has also an aim to include an overall understanding of the patient's situation.We witness an upsurge in the attention paid to the cultural limitations to psychiatric diagnostic practice and treatment modalities. Guidelines for the psychiatric profession are in critical focus from a transcultural perspective. Some claim their universality independent of cultural context; others find cultural adaptation useful and necessary.Do the diagnoses and clinical and ethical guidelines give meaning in the cultural setting? Are they compatible with the cultural values of the therapist and those of the patient and the family? Several sources claim the biomedical paradigm for being Western with insufficient consideration of the socio-political context.The cultural formulation developed as part of DSM-IV and now DSM-5 is one model to support a systematic review of culture and context in psychiatric diagnosing.The paper will discuss the advantages and shortcomings of current diagnostic categories and guidelines vis-à-vis the universe of traumatized refugees with other ethnic backgrounds.URL:http://www.mariannekastrup.dk/Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

International collaboration in mental health: Contributions, opportunities, and challenges

Introduction: Arising from the push for global health, the movement for global mental health has established itself as a distinct identity in the last few decades. Collaboration between donors, international agencies, institutions, and individuals of different countries has been an essential component in this endeavor. Methods: We review relevant reports in the literature that describe the process of collaboration between individuals and institutions in the area of mental health, in order to describe current patterns in international collaboration. Results and Discussion: In the last decade, international collaboration for mental health has increased substantially. Newer international professional associations; centers for global mental health at academic centers in Europe, USA, and Australia; and international health aid agencies have joined more established agencies, to provide platforms for collaboration. A number of priority-setting exercises have been undertaken that have stressed service development for mental health. International consortia for genetics and neuroimaging have demonstrated successful research collaboration. However, barriers to collaboration persist—these include a continuing failure to prioritize mental healthcare at a policy level, as well as difficulties in arriving at a consensus on conceptualization, transcultural issues, and priority-setting for mental health research. Going forward, the challenge for “global mental health” is to establish a framework that recognizes the unique contributions of all stakeholders and emphasizes equitable partnerships, while adapting knowledge across settings and health systems. Such an approach would be essential to achieve the stated aims of this movement.

Current research in transcultural psychiatry in the Nordic countries

This article discusses major themes in recent transcultural psychiatric research in the Nordic countries from 2008 to 2011: (a) epidemiological studies of migration, (b) indigenous populations, and (c) quality of psychiatric care for migrants. Over the past several decades, the populations of the Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, which were relatively homogeneous, have become increasingly culturally diverse. Many migrants to Nordic countries have been exposed to extreme stress, such as threats of death and/or torture and other severe social adversities before, during, and after migration, with potential effects on their physical, mental, social, and spiritual health. Growing interest in transcultural issues is reflected in the level of scientific research and clinical activity in the field by Nordic physicians, psychologists, social scientists, demographers, medical anthropologists, as well as other clinicians and policy planners. Research includes work with migrants and indigenous minorities in the Nordic countries, as well as comparisons with mental health in postconflict countries. We conclude by suggesting future directions for transcultural psychiatry research and providing guidelines for the education and training of future clinicians in the Nordic countries.

Transcultural dental training: addressing the oral health care needs of people from culturally diverse backgrounds

Australia is a culturally and linguistically diverse country with a population derived from over 140 countries and including 240 language groups. Reflecting this, there has been a significant increase in cultural diversity among undergraduate dental students. It has been recognized that in order for dental students to interact and respond effectively to the diverse cultural needs of their patients, students themselves must be aware of cultural differences and respect patients' worldviews. In response to this challenge, dental students will need to have the theoretical knowledge to understand culturally-influenced health behaviours as well as the ability to communicate effectively with culturally diverse patients. Currently, the culture of dental students contrasts with the patients they treat, which may in turn affect the interaction between dental students and their patients. Given this context, new graduates need both to effectively communicate with patients from diverse communities and have an understanding of culturally influenced health behaviours. It has been proposed that dental graduates need to improve their knowledge of a variety of cultural values, beliefs, practices and attitudes. The literature in the area of cultural awareness and education for oral health professionals concentrates on both exploring health professionals' knowledge and attitudes toward transcultural care or the need for transcultural training. This paper provides an overview of the transcultural issues in oral health care which might confront dental students when treating culturally diverse patients. It will also discuss possible modifications to the dental curriculum to ensure that the future oral health workforce understands the complex health care needs of a multicultural society. This information will give planners and stakeholders an insight into the nature of the cultural issues which future dentists are likely to encounter while treating patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. This would help to establish the need to incorporate transcultural awareness modules to enhance quality of care and to respond effectively and sensitively to cultural issues.

Transcultural issues in the dynamics of a Balint clinical reflection group for community mental health workers

The author presents transcultural issues in the content, process, and group dynamics of consecutive meetings of a Balint clinical reflection group for community mental health workers at Inala, Australia. Balint work and the context and evolution of the group process are briefly described, as is the consultative research methodology. The process of a Balint group meeting is reported in detail, following the author's consultation with group members. The collaborative work of a culturally diverse team of mental health professionals is examined in the context of discussion of a practitioner-patient relationship in which transcultural, gender, and family conflicts were the focus of affective and cognitive dissonance. For mental health workers engaging with communities of cultural diversity, Balint reflection groups can facilitate insight into cultural countertransferences that adversely affect clinical work. The group served to support the caseworkers' engagement with patients of different cultures, and provided a safe environment for the creative consideration and exploration in fantasy of the emotional pressures and complex ethical dilemmas related to boundaries in transcultural client-practitioner relationships, including those in which open discussion would otherwise be avoided.

Therapy and Ideology: Psychoanalysis and Its Vicissitudes in Pre-state Israel (Including Some Hitherto Unpublished Letters by Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein)

Few chapters in the historiography of psychoanalysis are as densely packed with trans-cultural, ideological, institutional, and moral issues as the coming of psychoanalysis to Jewish Palestine--a geopolitical space which bears some of the deepest scars of twentieth-century European, and in particular German, history. From the historical as well as the critical perspective, this article reconstructs the intricate connections between migration, separation and loss, continuity and new beginning which resonate in the formative years of psychoanalysis in pre-state Israel.

Comment le facteur culturel est-il considéré en psycho-oncologie ?

Psychosocial cancer care must integrate the patient’s cultural issues and social and family background. Paradoxically, these aspects are still undeveloped for economic and cultural reasons, which explains the paucity of transcultural research in psycho-oncology.The challenge is to find out how best to transpose, to populations from different cultures, the various issues that have come to light in daily clinical psycho-oncology or been revealed by research projects in psycho-social sciences sponsored by organisms such as the INCa or Canceropôles (cancer research centres). It also involves thinking about specificity of screening and management when transcultural issues arise. Cultural factors impact on patients’ perception, comprehension and experience of their disease and its treatment, on the medical professionals involved and, in fine, on the doctor / patient dyad.These cultural issues influence the various psychooncological factors and the way in which psycho-oncologists generally approach them: communication and disclosure of bad news, the doctor-patient relationship, physical and psychological experience of pain, body investment, beliefs and meanings invested in cancer, coping with the disease, role of the family, access to psychosocial care, satisfaction with treatment, end of life.Thus it is necessary to promote transversal and trans-cultural research in the field of psychosocial oncology. Such research has been started, under the aegis of the International Psycho-oncology Society (IPOS), with respect to specific thematics, such as how to assess and care for emotional distress in cancer patients.Transcultural research into psychooncology must respect the ethical principles of autonomy and nonmaleficence when so-called informed consent is requested. This ethic is based on distinguishing between different socioeconomic, socio-linguistic, institutional and socio-cultural dimensions, without forgetting the methodological principles involved in this type of research.Daily clinical work in this transcultural field necessitates the acquisition by medical personnel of cultural skills enabling them to care adequately for all the patient’s needs. Such work requires an awareness of the acculturation concept, so that patients from different cultures who are confronted with the disease can be helped to deal with the stress engendered and improve their ability to adapt.The transcultural approach in psychooncology should be part of the psychosocial dimension and psychosocial cancer care. To this end, health professionals working in oncology need to be made more aware of the cultural dimension in cancer care and trained in how best to approach it. Research into transcultural psychosocial sciences must be developed and promoted, as to date it is a field of research that is seriously under-developed.

Transcultural issues about death fantasies and beliefs

Our data comes from 32 interviews occurring during aone-year period with Greek patients who were seen within24 hours of a suicide attempt and after admission at thecasualty department of a Greek general hospital. At theend of the assessment the patient was asked to give a sui-cidal fantasy and speak about his thoughts and believesaround death.

Culture and psychopharmacology

Introduction:Culture is defined as the sum total of the way people think, feel, and act as members of a social group. Culture is learnt. Cultures can overlap and individuals can belong to several cultures. cross-cultural psychopharmacological studies have mainly focused on differences in the pharmacokinetics and pharmaco-dynamics of psychotropic medications among various ethno-cultural groups and research on many socio-cultural non-biologic contextual factors in psycho-pharmacotherapy is sporadic and often not widely known. In this paper, the authors review the relevant literature in all these areas.Methods:Searching the recent thirty years studies on cultural issues in psycho-pharmacology in a wide area and then screening them systematically, fifteen relevant studies were selected and evaluated. Results were conceptually re-arranged and re-classified and are presented in the format of a narrative review.Results and Discussion:In a general aspect, cross-cultural factors affecting psycho pharmacotherapy can be divided in two groups i.e. primary variables which directly influence pharmaco-dynamics and pharmaco-kinetics and confounding variables which indirectly interact with drug treatment, selection, usage and response. In another point of view, trans-cultural psychopharmacological issues are classified in the domains of patient variables, doctor variables and environmental variables, each including many different factors and considerations which are elaborated and discussed in the full-text of this material.

Training in transcultural psychiatry and delivery of education in a low-income country

A recently established initiative, the Scotland Malawi Psychiatry Project (SMPP), has provided a unique opportunity for specialist registrars to combine a number of training objectives of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Experience in teaching and assessment of students or junior colleagues is an important part of higher training. A further key objective of the College is to highlight transcultural issues in psychiatry, but trainee exposure to cultural and ethnic diversity varies throughout the UK. The SMPP enabled a group of psychiatrists training in Scotland to participate in a 5-week undergraduate education programme in Malawi and gain important insights into and experience of transcultural psychiatry.

Transcultural Issues in Asperger's Disorder: A Comparison of 2 Cases.

Transcultural Issues in Asperger's Disorder: A Comparison of 2 Cases.

Forced marriage

This article examines factors that are salient to understanding forced marriages and provides an overview of the issue. It aims to promote awareness in the UK, where there is a need for services to develop appropriate responses, as primary care and the local psychiatric services are not geared up to tackle such transcultural issues.

Conference to Address Transcultural Issues

Conference to Address Transcultural Issues

Conference to Address Transcultural Issues

Conference to Address Transcultural Issues

Welcome Harmonizations

Welcome Harmonizations