Hmong Culture Health Hmong Health Culture The Hmong people are a group of Asian-Americans who have been living in the United States since an immigration program was started in 1975. Because of their strong animistic faith and beliefs in the supernatural, they have been slow to adapt to the healthcare practices of the United States. The Hmong continue to rely on alternative medicine and faith healers to cure illnesses. Health Beliefs and Practices

Lia Lee could not be seen alone, as the doctors saw her. Their obligation was not only to her, but to her whole family. Lia Lee's brother aptly writes: I do recall everything from the door slamming incident to the day the doctors told my family that it was okay for her to come but she will not live pass 7 days. I will never forget that week or those

When the Hmong refugees encounter the peculiarities of the Western medical system, their entire worldview is called into question. Yet it is mainly the Americans who struggle. The Hmong view of health, healing, and wellness differ so sharply from that of the Americans that it is we who must examine our beliefs, not the Hmong. History has not been kind to the Hmong. Yet in some ways, this cruelty has

arrival of Hmong to the United States and delves briefly on the earlier conditions of the Hmong in Laos and Southeast Asia, their region of origin. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, by Anne Friedan is a book about the encounter between a Hmong family and the American medical community. It also goes into great detail

We know that we do not know everything in the West. However, many aspects of the Hmong are also just coming out of the Middle Ages and there is only so much that can be tolerated and there must be a demand for a middle ground in the way that western medicine and culture deals with medical issues when the science and the treatment regimen is clear. For instance,

Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman is a groundbreaking book about cross-cultural communication in health care. The book is about Lia Lee, who was the first in her Hmong family to be born in the United States. Her parents spoke no English. When Lia Lee was three months old, she had her first seizure. Due to misdiagnosis, a string of unfortunate events prevented Lia Lee from