t.
Issues in Mental Health Nursing
CHINESE PERSPECTIVES ON CULTURE AND MENTAL HEALTH
Chien-Lin Kuo, MS, RN Chang Gung Medical Coliege, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
VOLUME 15
NUMBER 6
1994
EDITORIAL.
Kathryn Hopkins Kavanagh,PhD,RN School of Nursing.University of Maryland at Batimore, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
MENTAL HEALTH OUTREACH PROGRAM FOLLOWING THE EARTHQUAKE IN ARMENIA:UTILIZING THE NURSING PROCESS IN DEVELOPING AND MANAGING THE POST-NATURAL DISASTER PLAN Anie Sanentz Kalayjian 533
Central to providing culturally appropriate nursing care is sensitivity to and knowledge ahout the group being cared for. Although "mental health" and "men- tal illness" are artificial concepts among people who do not differentiate and treat mind, body, and spirit separately,and who may not differentiate illness from other probiems of tiving, many individuals ethnically rooted in one or more Asian cultures enter Western mental heulth care systems. Quality nursing care requires understanding and respect for traditional values, betiefs, and practices that may differ signifi- cantly from those typicat of Western European-based societies. Whether clients are traditional in orienta- tion or highly acculturated to Western ways,nurses are responsible for providing cuiturally appropriate care. This article discusses mental health and nursing care froni various perspectives of Asian and Asian- American clienis, and in particular those of Chinese descent.
CHINESE PERSPECTIVES ON CULTURE AND MENTAL HEALTH Chien-Lin Kuo and Kathryn Hopkins Kavanagh
DEPRESSION AMONG CHINESE AMERICANS: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Betty Tabora and Jacquelyn H.Flaskerud 569
REFLECTIONS:WAITING FOR DEATH-A NURSING RESPONSE TO A FAMILY GRIEVING FOR A VICTIM OF TERRORISM Sevgi Haripoglu 585
Following page 588 Title page to Volume 15 Contents of Volume 15 Author Index to Volume 15 Subject Index to Volume 15
America is changing. By the middle of the 21st century, the average person in the United States will have ethnic roots in Asia, Africa, an Hispanic culture, or the Arab worid (Henry, 1990). As we move toward a society in which diverse cultural traditions are more visible and Euro- pean-based values and lifeways less dominant, ethnicity becomes in- Received 16 September 1993; accepted 23 May 1994. Address correspondence to Kathryn H. Kavanagh, PhD, RN Associate Professor,School of Nursing. Rooin 62i Parsons Hall, University of Maryland at Baltimore, 622 West Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. in Mt Hh Nurg5579 1994Tr&Francis 3.
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creasingly important in the definition of mental health and in the provi. sion of nursing care (Barker, 1992; Kavanagh & Kennedy, 1992). The purposc of this article is to increase sensitivity and knowledge pertinent to mental health nursing of Asian,and in particular Chinese,clients Despite a Western tendency to conceptualize Asian populations as a culturally undifferentiated mass, significant ethnic diversities exist among the various Asian groups, and even among subgroups such as the Chi- nese (Kitano & Matsushima, 1981; Lin, 1983; Yongling, 1991). The number of Asian Americans has more than doubled since 1970 and continues to increase rapidly (Parrillo, 1990; Sue & Sue, 1985). Accord- ing to the 1990 census, there were.