Question

What sociocultural factors do you think contributed to the degree of effectiveness within a death system?

Answer 1

Ans)

Considering the heterogeneity of American society, health and mental health professionals should use great caution in interpreting the bereavement experience of refugees, immigrants, and traditionally oriented ethnic group members as deviant because of the possibility that the norms for these groups may differ from their own and from those of the mainstream culture.

- Bereavement specialists should make an effort to be aware of and accommodating to alternative cultural practices for handling bereavement, and should be instructed in cultural differences in the bereavement process in an attempt to reduce the potential for cross-cultural miscommunication and iatrogenic effects.

- The pluralistic cultural context of bereavement, its secularization, and the concern with therapeutic means among the relevant professions, make it understandable that individuals and families in the United States often feel uncertain about how to proceed in the bereavement process.

- This is an issue that should be addressed by the relevant religions and mortuary, mental health, health, and governmental agencies with respect to public education about existing knowledge and choices.

- Research is needed on the various grieving experiences of ethnic group members to determine cultural norms of grieving and to lay the groundwork for determining pathology. High priority should also be given to research on the potentially greater risk for negative health consequences of bereavement among refugees, recent immigrants, and ethnic group members who experience social marginality and economic deprivation. In planning and conducting research in such communities, group members should be involved in the research process to determine risks and to plan culturally appropriate preventive and therapeutic interventions.