Blog Post 6-Amy Spear

This week we discussed how culture affects health. We know that every culture has its own unique values, customs, and traditions. Health care varies among culture as well. That is why it is advantageous that  eMH is able to facilitate clinical services to culturally diverse populations.

The use of eMH throughout various cultures and populations is beneficial because it can promote adaptation and reduce the stigma and discrimination that comes along with mental health and varying cultures. There many steps that can be taken to be more accepting of different cultures in healthcare and how to treat these patients effectively. For example, we can utilize the ASKED framework. This is an acronym that helps us treat patients from different cultures. The letters can be explained by A- Awareness, S- Skills, K- Knowledge, E-Encounters, and D- Design. Each aspect is important and essentially means that it is important to be appreciative and sensitive to other cultures, collect relevant cultural data regarding patient histories, have knowledge of varying cultures, engaging in cross-cultural interactions, and having the desire to work with these unique cultures.

Although there are many challenges that come along with treating different cultures, it is important that as health care professionals we are accepting of these other cultures. Language barriers can be especially challenging for health care workers. Because of the language barriers, with in-person therapy, it is common that patients will not return, will not adhere to medication regimens, and the quality of care delivered to them is poor. It is vital that we integrate methods to overcome these language and cultural barriers. We can do this by employing Bilingual and bicultural providers, professional interpreters, and providing written translation materials.

Using eMH could eliminate all of these problems.  Utilizing eMH incorporating techniques like video conferencing, we can treat hard-to-reach populations. It can also bring together health professionals with interpreters to eliminate these cultural and language barriers and help provide the greatest quality of care to these varying cultures.