| Minority Cultural Groups and Health Care Access
AM 580 reporter Kavitha Cardoza presents an ongoing series of reports on how the health care field is adjusting to new cultural, language and religious realities.
 Part
1: Bringing a new life into the world is made more difficult when the hospital speaks one language and the patient another. Kavitha reports on those who try to bridge the gap in Champaign.
Part
2: People who don't speak English can find getting healthcare daunting, especially if the translator isn't trained properly. While some call trained interpreters essential, others say they're an unnecessary expense.
Part
3: As our population becomes more diverse, health care providers are challenged by attitudes toward nutrition and medication that vary widely among different cultures.
Part
4: Visiting the hospital can be intimidating, with long forms to fill out, health insurance details to remember and the worry of “bad news.” Cultural differences make hospital visits especially trying for growing segments of the U-S population.
Part
5: Birth and death can be two emotionally trying situations for the health care industry, especially when cultural views and rituals on birth and dying are figured in. Hospitals have to make sure those rituals are not trivialized.
Part
6: When members of some cultures become ill, they turn to
their treatment of choice -- home remedies. But home
remedies can and o as much harm as good -- making it tougher
for doctors to treat their patients. There's a growing
need for traditional medical providers to understand cultural
medical practices.
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January
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Iraq war coverage from NPR
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