Cultural Sensitivity Paper Essay

The nicety that I have chosen to write about for this paper is the culture of India. It stern be both a demographic culture and a spiritual culture, depending on the particular beliefs of the client. The people of India have multiple beliefs about health. India has both established and traditional beliefs about medicine and illness. Food and religion are giant factors when it comes to certain Hindu people, depending on his/her personal beliefs. People from Indian culture shake off the preparation of food and the food itself in very high esteem. An exercise of Indian culture that is widely accepted includes only eating certain types of foods, not eating certain foods during illness or not eating any food at all according to the type of illness contracted. This practice is called apathyam and pathyam (in Sanskrit). It has excessively been said that if this practice is followed correctly than the majority of diseases and illnesses can go without being treated by medicine. Religion i s also a major part of the culture in India when it pertains to disease and caring for illness.The majority of the people living in India practice Hinduism. According to most Indian religions, the people believe that it is vital to deprivese regularly under running water. This can be problematic for patients that are confined to the bed or that have urinary catheters or colostomy bags because he or she whitethorn feel unclean and in some cases believe that he/she is unworthy to pray. Vegetarianism, meditation or prayer, and karma are other facets of Hinduism that might affect unrivalleds beliefs about illness and seeking care or illness. Each caretaker for a person of Indian culture or someone that practices Hinduism must be aware of the practices and traditions concerned with both and must be imparting to provide sensitive care accordingly. This can majorly affect whether or not an individual will choose to seek care. If a client thinks that their caretaker will not be willing to assist him/ her according to their cultural or religious beliefs, the client may chose not to seek care at all, which could negatively benefit them. The main concern would be to let the client know that you are willing to remain by and care for them in accordance to the clients beliefs. If the caretaker is unaware of some of the stipulations, the caretaker should be unafraid to ask. Most times the client will be happy to help give you the knowledge you may need to care for him/her. As a caregiver for a person of Indian culture or who has a strong Hindu belief system I would be interested to know the details of apathyam and pathyam so that I could respectfully assist them with the clients nourishment if he/she becomes ill. I would also assist them in any way I could with bathing so that the client could feel like he/she is clean enough to practice prayer or meditation freely. Knowledge about clients personal beliefs is vitally important to the extremely personal share a caregiv er could play in a clients life.