preview

Heritage Assessment Essay

Better Essays

Heritage Assessment
Culture is a pattern of behavior and values shared by an ethnic group. Cultural heritage is a set of traditions within the culture that is hand down from the older generation to the younger generation within the family. These traditions influence the family’s decisions in relation to their diet, education, daily living activities, religious beliefs and practices and also health and illness beliefs. In this paper, the author will focus on the usefulness of applying a heritage assessment in evaluating the needs of a person as a whole. Three different cultures including authors will be discussed about the health maintenance, health promotion, and health restoration. The author will also evaluate health traditions which …show more content…

According to the HAT, the author’s responses makes her close to her traditional practices and beliefs, she feels that even though they have been living in US for a long time, they are still connected to their traditional values and it affects them in making decisions about their every day living and also the health related decisions. Comparison of Three Different Cultures
The optimal health is equally important in every culture, but the reaction towards situation requiring decision-making about health can be different in every culture. Muslim receives illness and death with patience and prayers. They consider illness as punishment for their sins. They also consider death as a part of a journey to meet God. However, they are strongly encouraged to seek medical help when required. The concept of health maintenance has a significant importance in Islam; there are some foods that are not permit like pork and alcohol. Cleanliness has a high importance. Circumcision of male infant is recommended. ("," October, 17th 2012) Where as, in Hispanic and Mexican culture health maintenance is supported mainly by using folk medicine. Mexican believe their health problems may be a result of god’s will, or they may not have the resources for conventional care and turn only to traditional healers, such as curanderos, or herbal remedies to treat their ailments. ("," ) There are other barriers for Mexicans to

Get Access