Hello, my name is Gregory. When I was a young lad, I had to enter the health care world in an unexpected way. I developed a serious disease out of the blue that took doctors by surprise. I went through so many different testing procedures before my doctors could diagnose the rare disease. Everyone around me reeled as they tried to understand the purpose and process of the diagnostic tests. I hope to help others understand these important tests better through this website. Please come by often to learn all you need to know about medical diagnostics and working closely with health care professionals.
Talking About Diagnostic Tests For Medical Care
Culturally Appropriate Medicaid Services
Nanja Bongers
Medicaid provides long-term care for people with chronic and/or disabling conditions. As part of this service, Medicaid must provide services to people of varying ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. This means that patients may have culturally informed beliefs that dictate what type of care they want to receive. Medicaid is under obligation to provide culturally appropriate care. In order to make sure you get the care you deserve, you need to understand what culturally appropriate care entails.
Removing Language Barriers
In order to provide proper healthcare, patients need to understand, among other things, how to prepare for and recover from medical procedures. If directions are given in a language that the patient does not understand, the patient may not be able to receive adequate care. Thus, providing access to a translator and/or documents that have been translated into the patient's first language is a huge part of providing adequate care to the patient. In the case of a patient receiving long-term care, a translator must be provided whenever it is necessary.
Cultural Considerations
Culture doesn't only include traditions that dictate how people interact with one another; it also includes religion and how it impacts a patient's everyday life. For example, if you have a patient who observes regular prayer times, a provider of culturally appropriate care would make sure that the patient is able to continue with prayer times as much as possible. If patients want to have the picture of a saint and/or a candle burning in their room, then measures should be taken to provide access to necessary materials when possible. Whether the medical professionals providing care to a patient see any value in the patients' religious or cultural practices, they should in nowise try to impede the patients' ability to participate in cultural practices where medically possible.
If you are looking into receiving long-term Medicaid services and are worried about how such care might conflict with your culture, then you should look into what protections you have. Talk with case workers to make sure that they are aware of your home culture and language, so they can put a plan in place to make sure you have access to quality care that is at the same time culturally appropriate. You may also want to look at what would happen if a medical professional prescribes a treatment that in some way conflicts with your cultural and/or religious beliefs. By sorting out cultural considerations before signing up for Medicaid care, you can ensure that, down the road, you receive care that you are comfortable with.
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