Causes of illness and death

Chapter 10: Cultural Competence: Awareness, Sensitivity, and Respect

Think for a while about cultural practices and how they affect health or illness in your own family. They may be difficult to identify as such at first, but they do exist. What ideas about illness prevention does your family adhere to? What do you do when someone gets sick? What rituals does your family practice when someone dies?

Answer preview

When someone gets sick in my family, the first thing family members do is assessing whether the symptoms are serious so that the person can seek medical treatment before they become severe. The person does not seek treatment for symptoms of illness like cold, and instead, the person buys over the counter prescriptions that are known to address such symptoms. When someone in my family dies, prepares his or her funeral for about one week, after which the person is buried. The funeral service is conducted in a church and serves the purpose of praying for the deceased’s soul while also providing support and comfort to the family for the loss (Hidalgo et al., 2020). The deceased is given a decent burial so that his or her spirit can rest at peace. My family believes that failure to provide the dead with a decent burial

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Causes of illness and death
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