During the past few weeks of class, we explored various cultural conceptions of health and illness. We identified how such conceptions have been influenced by the history of Western medicine (e.g., the emergence of the biomedical model, the emphasis on verifiability, the separation of the mind from the body in medicine as a result of Descartes’ notion of mind-bodydualism, the biopsychosocial model, etc.). We also discussed the idea that, over time, our society has become more “medicalized” (i.e., Zola’s writing about the medicalizing of society). We discussed the factors that influence intercultural health communication interactions (i.e., source, message, and channel factors) as well as the ways in which gender, ethnicity, race, age, sexual identity, and socioeconomic status and other identity characteristics predispose certain populations to better or worse health and health care experiences (i.e., health disparities). Central to our discussions about health, illness, and health care is an understanding that people who claim certain identities and/or experience certain illnesses and conditions are likely to encounter social stigma and bear the burden of the resultant prejudice and discrimination.

1. How do differing cultural conceptions of health and illness shape the health care interactions between the Hmong community and the American health care providers?
2. How do the health care experiences described in these chapters illustrate the importance of source, message, and channel factors in health communication interactions at MCMM?
3. How might social stigma influence the Hmong community’s health care experiences and what are the possible consequences of such stigma?
4. What might help to improve the health care interactions between the Hmong community and American healthcare providers?
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