Adam Monge
Department of Undergraduate Psychology
CSPP at Alliant International University
Introduction This paper will provide an overview on similar and differences in physical and mental health in different ethnic groups and cultures. The importance of understanding how ethnic groups and culture view mental and physical health can be crucial in therapeutic settings and can be seen as wrong or unusual to us because the lack of understand of their viewpoints. People come from different ethnic groups and the range of diversity varies and varies over time and between different populations, the knowledge of knowing the differences of physical and mental health can help to improve the healthcare …show more content…
Each ethnic group brings their own ideas and concepts of physical and mental health, for example how a Hispanic will experience symptoms of depression vs. an African American who’s undergoing the same diagnosis but different symptoms (Oben, 2013). Each ethnic group has certain expectation for their health care and their beliefs about treatments and medication (Oben, 2013). Culture also has certain values that influence them as a patient, for example how dying will be managed, gender or family roles or certain decision making about their health (Oben, 2013). Let us focus on the Latin Americans, and Asian, whose life expectancy are great but get professional help from our healthcare system and treatment differently. Asian/Pacific Islanders participate less in any form of therapeutic solutions (Brammer, 2012). This is a common problem due to financial struggling and language barrier. European American use their healthcare service at a very high rate than any other ethnic group and culture and pressures a lot of ethnic groups in our society to conform to this custom way (Brammer, 2012). This causes many issues such as, an inability to meet certain culture expectation and demand that is placed by our countries health care system. Such example can be seen in both the Latin …show more content…
How each population shares similar experience and different beliefs is very important for professional health cares to understand. As future therapists, it is important to have this diversity gained and cultural competent training to prepare ourselves and others in engaging without harming our peers. This allows for our practice and approach to be aware and mindful to many of those who need it, it is important to develop awareness in all aspects. We’ve learned that each ethnic group view and celebrate mental and spiritual wellness differently and these are the perspective that we must inherit and practice, these perspective is what allows each culture to share similarities and differences, in the end we will continue to change this system, ourselves and becoming self-aware of our own