Summary Of The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman

In the novel The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the author Anne Fadiman describes the non-fictional story of a young Hmong girl and her experiences with American doctors as she seeks treatment. Lia Lee suffers from epilepsy but is caught in the cultural clash between her family and American doctors. The novel incorporates major themes that relate to public health, such as cultural competence amid different cultural beliefs and modern medicine. The conclusion of the novel depicts the consequences from a lack of cross-cultural communication and reveals weaknesses of modern Western medicine when it comes to treating patients in a way that aligns with their own beliefs. This is a relevant public health issue in America today, where we have

It has additionally tarnished Asian American immigrants as aliens and polluting threats to the health and welfare of the nation.2 As a result of unconscious biases, Lia is already at a disadvantage; first by her illness, and then by her classification as an Asian American. Culture plays a major role in the novel as each chapter shares some aspects of Hmong culture. This includes food, language, family style, and structure. Those deeply rooted in the Hmong culture have beliefs that the cause of disease is spiritual and can be further cured through their traditional forms of healing and rituals. As one can expect, these values against medical procedures and beliefs about origins of disease and conditions conflict with those of modern Western medicine. This has created conflict and misunderstandings through a lack of communication between medical practitioners and

These boards can then identify areas of improvement and design solutions that will be culturally competent. The concept of community engagement, viewed through its multiple lenses, is rooted in social justice and community change processes. In the 1997 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publication Principles of Community Engagement, community engagement was defined as “the process of working collaboratively with groups of people who are affiliated by geographic proximity, special interests, or similar situations with respect to issues affecting their well-being.”4 This educational background in understanding cultural perspectives is an important concept in working towards positive change in minority communities. An interesting quote that I believe summarizes this whole scenario is from William Osler. Osler is one of the founding physicians of Johns Hopkins