There are several issues relative to cultural relativism that health-care professionals must be aware of in treating the Asian-American client. While this awareness must for the most part precede the treatment of such a client, health-care professionals can continue to meet clinical standards while being culturally sensitive to their Asian-American clients.
Luckmann and Sorensen (1986) report that the cultural mores, norms, values and beliefs, in addition to those that are societally oriented, play significant roles not only in the manner in which individuals perceive of health in general and their health status in specific, but as well in the ways in which they respond to treatment by health-care professionals. They note:
In large part, our particular way of viewing life and the world surrounding us originates in our cultural heritage. Cultural attitudes, beliefs, and traditions are deeply ingrained in each of us and can affect all aspects of our personality and life, including our attitudes toward health and disease.
While cultural factors significantly contribute to the ways in which health-care is received by a given group of individuals, there is also the issue of variation within the culture. This is important for the health-care professional to keep in consideration as well, given that cultural variation can manifest relative to individual differences due to a variety of causes, including generational gaps, income, exposure to the majority group in society, level of education, etc. (p. 99). Beyond these, there is the issue of cultural conflict, which is prevalent in America given the myriad factors influencing culture and which can manifest in a variety of ways. Further, the issue of rapidly changing cultural values is also prevalent, given the speed with which influencing factors change in society. There is, last, the issue of culture shock, in which an individual emigrates from one land where values and more...