Blog Post 6-Abbi Herrold

This week in class we discussed cultural and cross-cultural impacts on healthcare and e-mental health. Some of the ways in which culture can impact healthcare and outcomes are: how symptoms are communicated, how various types of treatment is perceived/ viewed, and what expectations of the physician-patient relationship may be. For example, in non-western societies more collectivistic styles of treatment or holistic medicines may be more of the expectation than the exception to treatment and medicine. Additionally we discussed the importance of cultural competence in healthcare and the "ASKED" model. Finally, we ended with a review of international studies.

As we are becoming an increasingly diverse country, the American Psychological Association, is acknowledging more and more the need to consider culture in both research studies and patient practice. In the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-5), a cultural formulation interview guide has been added to encourage professionals to understand their patients' culture and background. This interview is significant because it gives the professionals the means to ask these questions; previously if there was a will to understand a patient's culture there wasn't necessarily a "way" (meaning that now clinicians and professionals can no longer say they do not know how to approach or ask questions about culture). The interview is broken up into four sections:1) cultural definition of the problem, 2) cultural perceptions of cause, context, and support, 3) cultural factors affecting self-coping and past help-seeking, and 4)cultural factors affecting current help-seeking,

I feel as if this addition to the DSM is very important in showing efforts to recognize cultural differences which can be a crucial aspect of healthcare and a patient-client relationship, however it is important to recognize that this interview is just a guideline. The professional who is asking these questions must still be able to use their discretion in identifying which aspects are the most crucial, which answers may need follow up questioning, and the most appropriate timing to ask these questions. As someone who will one day be trying to understand a patient's culture, I think it is important to have this interview formulation published as a guideline

file:///C:/Users/Abigail591/Downloads/APA_DSM5_Cultural-Formulation-Interview.pdf