Popular Cultural Practices & Beliefs: Home Remedies & Rituals

1. Popular Cultural Practices & Beliefs: Home Remedies & Rituals By Milagros Batista, MSW Co-founder, Alianza Dominicana, Inc. Community Liaison, Dyson Initiative

2. This is part of a curriculum on cultural competency and community at Columbia University, Community Pediatrics department. • The curriculum is following IOM recommendations which suggest that in order to provide culturally effective care we need to be knowledgeable, understanding, and have an appreciation of the patient’s culture. • You need to take into account their beliefs, values, actions, customs, and unique health care needs of distinct population groups.

3. What is Cultural Competency? • The AAP definition for cultural competency is: “set of congruent behaviors, attitudes and policies that come together in a system, agency or amongst professionals and enables that system, agency or professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.”

4. Cultural Competency Synonyms • Culturally effective • Culturally sensitive • Cross-cultural • Multicultural

5. Does this make you culturally competent? • To be culturally competent we need to be cognitive of: • Provider culture • Biomedical culture • Patient culture • Negotiation

6. Provider Culture Awareness • What we bring to our interaction with people from other cultures is: • An awareness of who we are (e.g. gender, social class, etc.) • Our family values (e.g. upbringing, religious beliefs, treatment beliefs, behavior, etc.)

7. Biomedical Culture Awareness • Physicians are trained to take only the bio-physical ailments into account • Disregard for psycho-social issues • Medical knowledge gives them the final say

8. Patient Culture Awareness • Core Cultural Issues (e.g. resources available, immigration issues, etc.) • Perceptions of Disease and Illness • Perceptions of Healing and Curing • Perceptions of Doctors

9. Negotiation • Your own check and balance • Communication and interaction in the encounter is effective and sensitive • It is a win-win situation

10. Goals: • Communication skills building • Better treatment or services provided • Health promotion and education • Developing family-centered care • Integrating other sources of care: traditional healers, community health workers • Reduce disparaties by decreasing error and improving health care.

11. My role in the curriculum is taking my knowledge and my role in the community into the medical community. • My presentation on “Popular Cultural Practices & Beliefs: Home Remedies & Rituals” is based on the Dominican experience since we are the predominant population in the area.

12. Objective • To increase the knowledge of Dominican cultural practices and beliefs as they relate to health

13. Why is it important for medical health professionals to know about the popular practices and beliefs of their patient population?

14. Who are Dominicans? • Where do they come from? • Brief history of the Caribbean • Ethnicity: Spanish/European, African, Indigenous influences

16. The Beliefs • Health as an integrated vision • The unity of physical, mental and spiritual health

17. The Practices: Home Remedies • Physical health • Agua de Rosa • Aloe Vera • Anise • Bronquina • Chamomille (Manzanilla) • Cordial de Monell • Higuereta (tree olive) • Honey • Lemon with salt

18. The Practices: Home Remedies • Physical health (continued) • Linden tree flowers (Tilo) • Miel de Rosa (rose honey) • Rabano Yodado / Rabano con Berro (Watercrest) • Sancochito • Scott’s emulsion • Sebo de flan (lamb’s wool oil) • Siete Jarabes • Tussibron

19. The Practices: Home Remedies • Mental health • Consultas • Fiestas • Reuniones Familiares • Relaciones Humanas

20. The Practices: Home Remedies • Spiritual • Altars • Hora Santa • Incense • Baths • Despojos (cleansing) • Clear water • Reguardos (mal de Ojo – evil eye) • Cintas en colores (Mujeres Embarazadas)

21. Cancion: El Yerbero Moderno • Popular song by Celia Cruz and la Sonora Mantancera (1948)