Integrating Culture in Healthcare (Essay Sample)

Integration of Culture in Health Care
Name
Institution
CULTURE AND HEALTH
It can be difficult to offer the delicate care required by elderly people suffering from chronic diseases especially if the care giver and the patient have different ethnicities.
One of the strategies I would implement to provide comfort and maintain function for an ethnically diverse older adult with a chronic disease is to incorporate cultural competence in health care. Cultural competence in health care is broadly defined as the ability of providers and organizations to understand and integrate factors like race, ethnicity, nationality, language, gender, and occupation into the delivery and structure of the health care system (Health Policy Institute). Things like providing an interpreter to help overcome language barriers, coordinating with traditional healers in providing treatment, modifying traditional foods in their diet and creating a living space that assimilates with their culture could go a long way.
I also would increase their physical exercises. Not only can exercise help with physical symptoms, but it can improve emotional issues such as depression and anxiety as well. The mind-body connection works in a positive way when we engage the “feel-good chemicals” in our brain, like serotonin and dopamine, through exercise (Risi 2015). This can be done by enhancing interactions among participants through culture-specific activities, involving them in development programs, coordinating with their families and teaching them about the benefits of exercises, for example walking, yoga