Adapted from How to Better Understand Different Social Identities - Think Cultural Health with input from people living with IBD and an expert steering committee
Getting to know your patient’s social identities will help you understand the discrimination and oppression they have faced. It can also position you to help your patient find ways to cultivate strengths and find inspiration. You can support your patient in drawing strength from their intersecting social identities, finding a unique combination of qualities and capabilities that empower them.
When seeking to better understand a patient’s social identities, consider the following factors.
Examples:
What lingering damage might American Indian communities face as a result of the history of compulsory boarding schools separating American Indian children from their families?
How might a Hmong refugee be impacted by the long history of persecution and displacement faced by members of the Hmong ethnic group?
Examples:
For a transgender client, what is the message sent with the passage of “Bathroom Bills”?
How might a Hispanic client be affected by current changes in immigration enforcement and plans to build a wall on the border with Mexico?
Examples:
How might values of independence and individualism, common in dominant groups in the U.S., contrast with values of collectivism and family predominant in many Asian, African, and Latin American cultures?
What misunderstandings could arise between groups that value straightforwardness, such as the dominant U.S. cultural group, and groups that value politeness, perhaps depending more on nonverbal cues to communicate?
Examples:
What cultural practices that are common among the dominant groups in the U.S. contrast with cultural practices of other groups?
Take personal space, for example, which is important for many Americans. What impression would an insistence on personal space give a person from a Latin American or Mediterranean culture where people prefer to stand or sit very close to others while talking?
Reference
- 1. Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Think cultural health. How to better understand different social identities. Accessed April 1, 2024. https://thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/assets/pdfs/resource-library/how-to-better-understand-different-social-identities.pdf.