The Split Horn Film Analysis

Hey stay with the American culture and their traditional dance. Hmong believe in the spiritual belief for among the family. Paja and

Tayo is mixed, half native american and half white, so his family and the people on the reserve taught him their beliefs. As the story continues, the medicine man, Betonie, tells Tayo the doctors at the hospital weren’t able to completely get rid of his disorder because of a certain belief. That belief is that the cure has to help the entire community in order to work. The reader can see that Tayo and his people believe that if one person is sick, the community is sick. He tells Tayo the only way for him and his community to get better is to hold a traditional ceremony.

(Lindsay, 2015, “The Story of the Hmong People in the United States” Para. 8) The Hmongs have made many sacrifices, leaving behind their land and becoming some of the first generations in the United States as their lives are influenced by many things every

Family and group solidarity are important to the Hmong, yet they were forced to split apart during their journey to America. The Hmong also partook in ceremonies, dances, and sacrifices that were important to them and their religion, however, the doctors and other people were wary of these practices and didn’t condone them, especially when it came to patients such as Lia Lee. Lee’s doctors were constantly giving her shots, medicine, and feeding her through tubes. Her parents didn’t approve of this at all and thought that the medicines they were giving her was what was killing her.

Ethnomedicine has been historically defined as any healthcare system not present in the West; now, ethnomedicine is defined as the any cultural beliefs which surround healing in a community. The Hmong—an ethnic group located within present day Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand—have a particular system of ethnomedicine which is described as personalistic. Within a personalistic system, an active agent is the underlying cause of a disease—or etiology. Humans can be the cause of the disease as well as a number of non-human and supernatural agents. When Lia Lee began seizing at three months of age, her parents understood that the active agent which caused her epilepsy was a door slamming which caused her soul to fly from her body, an illness called quag

Mental health is a state of psychological well-being. According to World Health Organization (WHO) mental health includes "subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential, among others." (Organization, WHO 2001) However, cultural differences, race, ethnicity, personal background, subjective assessment, and socioeconomic status all affect how mental health is defined. This variation in definitions of mental health between different sects of our society further causes drift in methods of treatment, and may cause the burden of mental health to be greater on some cultures.

This relevant data about Native American substance abuse is just a remark that these communities still have a long way to go in terms of health and healing treatment, but it shows that even though they have communities ravaged by alcohol, drugs and diseases like smallpox they are still here and will make their voices heard. The focus here is to analyze and see how Navajo’s healing treatment can be applied to our understanding of medicine. The Navajo are probably the most famous native American tribe and the fact that they were the less touched and affected by European’s diseases as stated by David Jones “In contrast to most other American Indian tribes, the Navajo had been spared the catastrophic mortality that followed the arrival of Europeans

This will be done using Piat and Polvere’s (2014) framework for transformative change in the mental health sector. The principles from this strategy, as well as input from Aboriginal people from multiple reports on their own experiences and constructions regarding mental health, will then form the basis for recommendations for a paradigm shift for Aboriginal mental health in Australia. Indigenous Mental Health: Context

I. Depression among cultures and ethnicities can differ not only on its triggers but also on its treatment preferences; several factors are being analyzed to compare how this mental disorder is affecting Hispanic communities, particularly those of Mexican origin, in the US. A. Key Points 1. Lack of education regarding depressive disorders and their treatment options. 2.

Those who practice use an important tool, magic, “not black magic, but the magic of healing and making whole” (Wicca, Chambers

The different ways one can look at Paja’s illness is by acknowledging the Hmong culture and by looking at the perspective of the biomedical world.

Over the progression of the book the view points and relationships between the Lees and the doctors develops slightly. The medical staff was not prepared with a translator or a cultural understanding of the Hmong and how their beliefs would not match up with their medical practices. “Not only do the Hmong fail resoundingly to improve the payer mix- more than eighty percent are on Medi-Cal- but they have proved even more costly than other indigent patients, because they generally require more time and attention, and because there are so many of them that MCMC has to hire bilingual staff members to mediate between patients and providers” (Fadiman 25). This theme in the story was immensely eye opening for all of the cultural gaps that exist throughout the United States. The solution to this problem is for both sides standing on opposite sides of the gap to take the time to bridge the gap together.

Hmong Culture The Hmong primarily originated from the “mountainous areas of China, Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos” (Purnell, 2014, pg. 236) and immigrated to the United States in 1975 after the Vietnam War. Primarily refugees from Laos, the Hmong people began immigrating to the United States in large numbers “after communist forces came to power in their native country.” (Bankston, 2014, pg. 332) Mainly settling in California, the Hmong began to be dispersed by American refugee settlement agencies across the country in the 1980s, also settling in Wisconsin and Michigan.

In a study by Sarah Garcia-Siberman (1998:1-12), mental health issues can be seen at any age from the very young to the elderly, those with a higher level of education are less likely to develop cultural-bound syndromes. They are more likely to seek out the assistant of mental health providers (psychotherapy) and take medication (pharmacological treatment) if needed. This makes since to me, when someone is educated and are able to cope with the stresses of everyday life, the person is better equip to deal with whatever changes occur, making mental health issues less likely in this population. The older population and those that have little to no education, view these syndromes as evil, spiritual possession, or witchcraft, which can only be cured through herbal remedies, religious or shaman healers, and ritual ceremonies (Piñeros 1998:1425). If a culture is isolated and has no contact with civilization, I can see why they would not be able to seek professional help.

The purposes of rituals and meditation is to give experience for a person 's soul in order to develop and control their own