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Mental Health Nursing in the Filipino Culturally College Mental Health Nursing in the Filipino Culture the realm of Mental Health Nursing, there are various cultures and religions that a Mental Health Nurse will encounter with this particular patient population. Each culture has particular aspects that make it unique and offers challenges that make a plan of care for the mental disorder an exercise of empathy. The Filipino Culture offers the challenge off culture steeped in religious mysticism in a Catholic Framework that may often make it official to explain and treat mental disorders from a western perspective.
Furthermore, a sense of saving face in the Filipino community has made many cases of mental disorders and abuse hidden from caregivers and are left untreated. The importance of prayer and spiritual counseling cannot be overemphasized in the Filipino Culture. Challenges in life are often a test of one’s Spirituality and a test of strength of their faith in God. Filipinos tend to be passive and patient and are prone to being exploited, accepting suffering as a sacrifice for the greater good when events re perceived as being beyond their control.
A strong sense of religion focuses the Filipino toward alternative forms of medicine. During the professionalism period and even in our current modern age, treatment of mental and physical conditions would involve rituals aimed at reversing punishment from the spiritual world and restoring balance in the physical world. These concepts were supplanted by a more biomedical approach as Western medicine was introduced during the American era. Instead of going to physicians, many approach “albatross” (faith healers).
These indigenous lealer use herbs, massage, oils, and prayer as treatments. A popular example are the “Psychic Surgeries” where a Faith Healer would pull through a patient’s skin a tumor located internally in the body without producing an incision or would that needs care. Although these methods are “unscientific,” people consult these faith healers partly because of the compassion they display and the seemingly instantaneous and empirical results, often in contrast to the cold clinical approach of western medicine that produce lab values and imaging that may be incomprehensible.
The notion that a person is suffering from schizophrenia has religious or spiritual implications as well. On a personal note, family members viewed an uncle that was suffering from schizophrenia and had diminished personal hygiene as not having gone to mass on a regular basis and therefore was being punished by God. This attitude was also extended too Caucasian friend who was not taking her psych medication and had exacerbations of her illness.
She was simply dismissed as not having any faith or acknowledgement of God and there was no further discussion on how to treat her. The alternate position towards mental illness of ignoring the problem or pretending that it does not exist doesn’t help the situation either in the Filipino culture. There is a notion that any family problems are swept under the rug and any broadcasting of any challenging family matters is “Waling Hay”, without shame.
In the case of mental disorders, physical//mental/emotional abuse, and addictions there is a tendency for some first generation Filipino families Mental Health Nursing in the Filipino Culture By Sanchez the treatment because they are instigating the situation rather than putting up with he behavior and offering the suffering as a sacrifice for a better future. For the families dealing with mental disorders and addictions the approach is very similar in the sense that the behavior is Justified with dubious rationality.
For instance, family members with a gambling addiction do not have a gambling addiction but rather justified as playing hard because they work hard and they need the high stakes outlet to keep their competitive edge in their stressful line of work. As you can see, there are a lot of preconceived religious beliefs and a sense of decorum in the family Truckee that can make it very difficult for many healthcare providers and caregivers to follow a plan of care dealing with mental issues in the Filipino Culture.
This is readily evident in the families that have 1st generation Filipinos that immigrated into the United States. Many of them are steeped into religious traditions that rely on a sense of mysticism and divine intervention in the cure or remedy of disease. Also there is a sense of pride in many first generations that compel the family and the one suffering from admitting to any mental disorders. These are factors one must consider in the field of Mental Health Nursing to bring proper care to the patient population.