Native American Attitudes Toward Illness

Philosophy Regarding Causes of Illness and Paths to Wellness

From the Native American perspective, healing rather than curing is the most important aspect of medicine. Healing includes the making whole of the individual through the establishment, enhancement, or restoration of well-being and harmony within the individual. From this perspective when an individual is sick, rather than simply being prescribed an antibiotic, a healer would pray with the patient and ask the Great Spirit for help. The patient is surrounded with love and support as they attend a healing ceremony. Thus connection to peo0ple, nature, and spirit is emphasized. In this manner, the Native American healing is a holistic medicine. For the Native American, healing, spiritual development and quality of life cannot be separated from other life aspects to include politics and economics. Harmony with the Earth is essential for health. Within this perspective, there is a great deal of diversity regarding techniques, ceremonies, and practices that take place in tribal cultures and the talent

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mography and Pap smears. American Indian Medicine for Treatment of Illness Mehl-Madrona (1999) reported on traditional Native American healing practices that are being sought more and more by Native Americans and non-Natives. The author met with Native American healers to obtain their worldview and biomedicine. An approach to bridge cultures and develop practices to treat all was developed. The author treated 116 patients with traditional Native American healers and 80% showed significant and long-term benefits from the program. The control group consisted of patients from the author's emergency room practice and this group showed less improvement. The program lasted from seven to 10 days and proved to be effective and cost efficient. The program is descried as an approach that combined spiritual, mental, and physical aspects that are treated with counseling and ceremony within a dynamic energy system. The healing effects of prayer are included as were hypnosis/imagery, body therapy, projective techniques (use of Native American images, shields, and animal images), and ceremony. Native American concepts about healing were included in the program. The healer believes that healing takes time and time is healing. The he
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Some common words found in the essay are:
American Indian, Native American, Spirit Dances, Native Americans, Navajo Christian, Indian Alaska, Holy People, Harmony Earth, Pacific Islander, According Navajo, american indian, native american, mental health, health care, mental health care, healer patient, american indians, indian medicine, american indian medicine, napoli 2002, native american healing, holistic health, cohen 2003, holistic health care, status american indian,
Approximate Word count = 3462
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)

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