Cultural Empowerment to DSME for African Americans
Continuing with the same cultural group and health issue for the Session Long Project that you began in Module 1, write a paper to address the following:
Describe the Cultural Empowerment of the group you chose. Specifically address how each of the PEN-3 model’s three factors within the dimension of cultural empowerment applies to your group, and provide examples.
Use subheadings to clearly show that you have addressed each of the three factors. Support your discussion with references from scholarly and professional references (not just your opinion).
Length: 2-3 pages, excluding the cover page and the reference list.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Assessment and Grading: Your paper will be assessed based on the performance assessment rubric. You can view it under Assessments at the top of the page. Review it before you begin working on the assignment. Your work should also follow these Assignment Expectations.
Cultural Empowerment
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Cultural Empowerment
Introduction
Understanding the current practices and health beliefs of African Americans is foundational to introducing effective health education programs to address the issue of diabetes. Cultural empowerment includes positive, existential, and negative. Indeed, it emphasizes the importance of culturally sensitive educational programs. The most significant thing about diabetes self-management education programs is that they are individualized for specific demographics to promote cultural sensitivity due to their relevancy in meeting the unique needs of a given population. The paper focuses on the three PEN-3 model factors in the dimension of cultural empowerment, namely positive, existential, and negative as they pertain to DSME for African Americans.
Cultural Empowerment
Positive
The domain of cultural empowerment focuses on the possibilities of culture that might foster positive health behaviors in the DSME. Some positive attributes include family and spirituality. The best thing about these things is that they not only foster cultural context, but they shape health practices and beliefs. For instance, family systems play crucial roles in nurturing positive health outcomes and behaviors (Iwelunmor, Newsome, & Airhihenbuwa, 2014). The family has a positive cultural value to African Americans with diabetes. Indeed, it provides care and hope that helps individuals suffering from diabetes to have hope and feel better about themselves. In other words, the family neutralizes the issue of fatalism. Besides, fatalism refers to the feeling of despair, powerlessness, and hopelessness that is associated with black people’s abilities to manage diabetes (Purcell & Cutchen, 2013). Spirituality comes from a strong belief in God. African Americans believe that supernatural powers determine whether individuals' suffering will get better or not. Those who strongly believe in God have hope and strength to manage diabetes since they know that God can do miracles when they pray. When it comes to providing daily care for individuals with diabetes, family comes first. In that light, positive relationships with family members lead to the provision of proper support that enables African Americans to manage diabetes.
Existential
Existential entails faith healing. In particular, some participants said that they felt better when they went to church and the pastor prayed for them. For example, one respondent attested that pain reduced after prayers (Purcell & Cutchen, 2013). Since African Americans are strong believers and churchgoers, they create proper connections that facilitate self-care habits. Religious communities enhance the DSME since individuals’ hope is renewed in a manner that they believe in and focus on getting better. They act as sources to acquire advice, and diabetes care tasks, alleviate feeli...