Culture matters greatly in healthcare. The systematic neglect of culture in healthcare is the biggest barrier to the advancement of a standard of care worldwide according to an expert that Dr. Jessica Dere cites in her Ted talk. People know stereotypes of cultural characteristics and assume that all people from a culture share those characteristics. This can be limiting and comparisons and distinctions are then made that can cause even further limits. Even just focusing on an individual is not good enough to address cultural care. In order to develop a full understanding of mental health, healthcare providers must understand not only the individual but also the culture from which they come.
Culture awareness is minimized in mental health. Learning to be culturally informed can be overwhelming and people can tend to avoid becoming culturally aware. Dr. Dere offers 2 suggestions about how to go about becoming educated in cultural awareness in the mental health field. The first suggestion is to take a stance of informed curiosity. Clinicians should not work from the perspective that individual of a cultural group share characteristics in every case. A stance of informed curiosity is to be humble and encourages asking questions.
The second suggestion is to ask different questions and ask questions differently. This forces a person to re-evaluate ideas that they held previously. This is good to establish different perspectives that help to bring cultural awareness into mental healthcare. Healthcare providers should also develop cultural knowledge, but should ask questions about the differences and learn what they are. They should also never assume something about a person based on their perceived culture. People can think differently about the world based on culture and on their experiences, so there can be a wide range of differences that may or may not be based on culture.
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