One thing I appreciated from the article this week was that Welch stresses the importance of accepting and working with traditionally held beliefs, such as folk remedies. Heaven knows that I've had to gargle salt water for a sore throat, eat tons of oranges during the onset of an illness, drink ginger tea with lemon and honey for a cold, eat ginseng because it's shaped like the human body (and therefore is good for the body)... and I know that these are not clinically proven to work. But my mother swears by them, and I'm happy to oblige. Granted, the folk remedies mentioned in the article can range from innocuous to potentially harmful, but as long as the doctor is aware of the dangers and can somehow get the patients to avoid the potentially harmful ones, it's better for all parties to work with the remedies rather than declare them ludicrous and ban them. I liked especially how the article suggesting altering rather than banning even the dangerous remedies, in order to better accomodate the patient's beliefs. After all, I don't think the home remedies I use are ludicrous, but who's to say that people of another culture would think that of them?
Actually, this is somewhat of an inspiration to me as we begin thinking seriously about our health presentations. How can we most effectively present the material and make it immediately applicable and feasible to implement for our audience?
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1 comment:
I knew it! I knew gargling salt water to get rid of the sore throat didn't work! My dad tricked me.
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