University Essay: Culture and Society in Public Health (HMG7230)

This essay delves into the crucial role of culture and society within the realm of public health, emphasizing the importance of understanding human behaviors and health practices. It introduces key concepts such as cultural competence, cultural humility, and cultural responsiveness, highlighting their significance in addressing health disparities and improving healthcare delivery. The essay examines how these concepts are applied in healthcare settings, the distinctions between them, and their impact on patient care, communication, and health outcomes. Furthermore, the essay underscores the significance of health literacy and the need for culturally sensitive approaches in health education and interventions, considering factors like language, beliefs, and socioeconomic status. It concludes by emphasizing the need for continuous self-evaluation and the development of organizational practices that promote diversity and responsiveness to ensure effective healthcare services for all populations.

Running Head: PUBLIC HEALTH 0
Culture and Society in Public Health
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In public health, culture is used as an explanatory and descriptive concept putting efforts to
understand human knowledge and action about health, medicine, illness, and health-seeking
practices of groups and individuals. It helps in increasing medicine intervention and global
connections looking towards the renewed attention to health disparities and issues of cultural
competence related to health behaviours (Betancourt, et al., 2014). The interactions in society
acquired by humans define culture as a holistic system constructing static thing. It considered
to be complex system and is learned and relational with a dynamic process in relation to
social contexts. It consists of shared meaning system including unconscious and conscious
assumptions looking at individual experience and guiding for future actions and expectations.
It provides recognition of the exercise of power for efforts in understanding and focusing on
culture and issues of cultural competence (Betancourt, et al., 2016). The concept of culture
understands human practices tracing cultural influences on health and efforts on improving
the measures. The society consists of historical, political, economic and geographic contexts
by which culture informs and gets influenced to determine and be accountable. In this essay,
the discussion is on working with diversity considering the terms cultural competence,
cultural humility and cultural responsiveness used in public health and to know their
differences or similarities. It is based on the impact related to society and culture concerns of
public regarding health which requires development of the health disciplines. It consists of
social issues and problems related to health get after looking at cultural values and practices,
social conditions, emotions and personification.
In public health, some of the key terms which are used by healthcare professionals are
cultural competence, cultural humility and cultural responsiveness while working with
diversity. Understanding of these terms is important for healthcare professionals so that they
are able to address key challenges relating to diversity while discharging their duties. One
aspect of healthcare is cultural competence is the capability of providers and organizations
which effectively delivers cultural and social needs of patients, meeting linguistic health care
services (Kirmayer, 2012). The increase in diversity of the country comes with challenges
and opportunities for healthcare providers, policy makers and healthcare system for
delivering and creating culturally competent services (Hughes, 2016). The contribution in
eliminating ethnically and racially disparities, quality of care and helping in better health
results can be improved cultural competence. The strategic moving of the healthcare system
is for the achievement of goals consists providing proper training on cross-cultural issues and
cultural competence to health experts and reduction of linguistic and administrative hurdles

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by making policies for patient care. The incorporation of cultural attitudes and values
specifically into health promotional tools, interpreter services, using community health
workers, retaining and recruiting minority staff, coordinating with traditional healers,
providing training to increase cultural knowledge, cultural skills and cultural awareness,
expansion in hours of operations and more helps in changing the healthcare system (Renzaho,
et al., 2013). It is an on-going leaning process required for increasing the cultural competence
of the healthcare delivery system.
Among the health care aspects with cultural competence relating to service providers worked
with clients, cultural humility is an another aspect differentiating with the development of
partnership with diverse groups, individuals and communities. Cultural humility helps in
improving relationships with the values consisting openness, flexibility, appreciation and
acceptance (Foronda, et al., 2016). It requires the knowledge of cultures influencing
population of society including establishment, resettlement, religious impacts, social or
political forces and local shifts. In healthcare, impact of culture is diverse for public related to
health concerns, medical advice follow-up, taking medications and healthy behaviours.
Cultural humility includes knowledge about the impact of self-sense and space, language and
communication, appearance and dress, eating habits and food, and time consciousness and
time (Foronda, et al., 2018). Others are values and norms, relationships, learning and mental
processes, attitudes and beliefs, and practices and work habits. It is a commitment to critique
and self-evaluation for addressing power relations and working in partnerships which is a
life-long process to check the power imbalance existing in the dynamics of communication.
The similarity between both the aspects is on the basis of skills consisting personal, inter-
personal, organizational, program planning, and advocacy and policy through every levels at
the time of assessing situations for improvement. It requires communicating with others from
their view point (Fisher-Borne, et al., 2015). Hence, the difference initiates cultural
competence as a inclusion of laws, policies, practices, rules, mandates, standards and
attitudes whereas cultural humility is a process of commitment for long-term to self-evaluate
and critiques for improving relationships and results. It is just a matter of authority.
Moreover, cultural responsiveness is the third aspect other than cultural competence and
cultural humility of healthcare. It provides the structure for recommending companies
providing health service to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations which is
easy to adapt by the staff and systems of healthcare systems. It also helps in addressing the
challenges related to cultural diversity in healthcare systems. The services responsiveness to

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cultural diversity to understand clients’ needs for promoting commitment to cultural diversity
values (Hlavac, et al., 2018). For instance, the needs fulfilment of minority racial and ethnic
groups of the Australian healthcare system is not enough by designing responsibility and
delivery of healthcare by ensuring the responsiveness. To receive the feedback by managing
the cultural diversity in health care services from the CALD clients on satisfaction regarding
need of the health service related to responsiveness. It is important to establish responsive
practices and policies relating to demographic for being culturally responsive (Brown &
Crippen, 2017). The identification of factors relating to responsiveness lacking in cultural
diversity consists of unsupportive or supportive organizational frameworks, the amount of
CALD clients presenting for service and presence of staff positions devoting to cultural
diversity. In cultural responsiveness, improvements need requires the company approach as a
whole in mind with service users. In short, it delivers the services which are culturally
responsive to CALD users. There is a difference between the aspects related to complexity
and different understanding levels in the health sector (Knotts & Keesey, 2016). It is the
concrete method of responding to CALD patients enabling a less technicality at both an
institutional and relational level and addresses the wider social determinants of health factors.
The structure of cultural responsiveness is broadly addresses the implied and obvious
distinctions at systematic and individual level.
Cultural responsiveness framework in healthcare systems
Source: (Gill, 2015).

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The context of its cultural background helps in identifying the idea of responding people
strategically. Cultural competence is less responsive than cultural responsiveness as per the
encouragement of cultural knowledge response to situational applications and comparatively
less technical in nature. This learning process includes cultural safety aims at bringing
behavioural changes and practice improvements. It is the extension of cultural competence
and occurs after it including structure of relationships with clients and their values supporting
networks and the community for achievement (Gill, 2015). Culture responsiveness occurs
after culture competence has been achieved as it is a result of the company’s ways of culture
diversity management with culture competence achievement by the help of proper policies,
resources and procedures. The delivery of healthcare with cultural responsiveness, health
services need to maintain and create a certain kind of organizational culture featuring well-
resourced management practices and systems of cultural diversity, culturally responsive
service delivery systems, workforce and informed clients. It is leaded and enforced at the
level of operations by improving quality, managing risk, caring patients, processing
complaints and discharge and admission processes (Bennett, et al., 2017). The measuring of
effectiveness of culturally diverse management system is essential to ascertain the
responsiveness of the company culture and the way of comparison with competitors. The
culturally responsive workforce is meeting the healthcare requirements of CALD clients is
needs to be considered.
It is important to understand the depth of health literacy gains and its meaning in the culture
context. For instance, diversity of the US population has given importance ethnically and
linguistically especially. The diverse American populations had various systems of belief
related to health and illness in cultural affecting the thinking and feeling of people linked to
their health and health issues. It requires them to the way of seeking health care and the
change they can bring consisting health-care interventions and treatment adherence (Weech-
Maldonado, et al., 2018). Culture can be differentiated by individual’s styles of
communication, words meaning and gestures, and discussion regarding the health, illness,
and body. It requires mutual understanding and communication in health literacy between
patients and their families and staff and health-care providers with culture as well,
influencing the outcomes and content of encountering health-care (Hooper, et al., 2918).
Health literacy not recognizing the potential effect related to cultural differences on the
communication and understanding of health information for people to know meaning and
purpose of it. As per the example of the US, requires conceptual understanding of the

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interconnections between literacy and culture providing meanings to know about diverse
populations and to make informed decisions depending on valid data related to health.
The issues related to learning, culture and language are inter-related and for effectiveness, it
requires conducting health education with accurate formats for addressing the multi-diverse
population increment. The family, cultural and social impacts helps in shaping attitudes and
beliefs and influencing health literacy consisting social determinants of health related to
documenting conditions with no control to individual affecting the ability of participating in a
health-literate society as a whole. The culture includes native language, gender; ethnicity;
race and socio-economic status represented by advertising, news publishing, marketing and
availability of the excess of health information sources through electronic channels are also
the part of socio-cultural background of health literacy (Paparella-Pitzel, et al., 2016). In the
health system, culture and society provides the opportunities to individuals with underlined
assumptions and values. The impact of society is on individuals, and communities, families,
and professional groups. The work of social networks is done by social factors including
government programs, private-sector markets, and legislation as well. The broad variety of
social factors diffuses and produces information or misinformation, bias shaping, supporting
and developing health-promoting or degrading environments and providing normative forces
(Hook, et al., 2016). Individuals and others are impacted by the actions of public health and
car providers suggesting serious intervention points.
After discussing all the terms and aspects of healthcare consisting cultural competence,
cultural humility, and cultural responsiveness it has been showed that there is a difference
between cultural competence and cultural humility, and inter-relatedness as well but cultural
responsiveness is after when culture competence is achieved (Danso, 2018). Cultural
competence is an ability of having an effective interaction with individuals of many ethnic,
social, racial, religious and socio-economic groups working towards the on-going process of
cultural competence knowing about learning patterns of beliefs, values, behaviour, language
and customs of specific groups. While cultural humility is an on-going process involving self-
critique and self-exploration combining with willingness learning from others (Campinha-
Bacote, 2019). It shows the relationship with another individual with the intention of
honouring values, beliefs and customs acknowledging differences and accepting the same
individual. The personal skills of cultural competence is the ability to conduct self-evaluation
regularly impacted by beliefs and values while cultural humility is the commitment of
learning continuously about other cultures. The inter-personal skills of cultural competence

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are ability of communicating with others with different language and worldview while
cultural humility is the capability of translating way of seeing and behaving from one culture
into another. The program planning skills are the ability of showing respect for another
culture’s identity and values, including the capacity of environmental, cultural and social
influencing communities in program design, and talent for building trust, working with
culturally diverse community members and relationships development (Prasad, et al., 2016).
The organizational development skills with the ability of establishing organizational
leadership and vision promoting a positive multicultural work environment, with the
capability of implementing and creating procedures and policies to nurture inclusion and
diversity (Russell, et al., 2017). The advocacy and policy skills with the capability of revising
and assessing existing procedures and policies in the evaluation, planning and delivery of
comprehensive services and programs for diverse populations; the capability to revise and
review policies allocating resources for culturally diverse populations such as interpretation
and translation services.
To conclude, cultural competence consists of cultural awareness, cultural skill, cultural
knowledge and cultural encounter for the emergence of way of thinking, cultural data,
understanding world views and cross-cultural interactions. Cultural humility gives greater
understanding of cultures being different from everyone and helps in recognizing every
patient’s unique cultural experiences. These aspects work together to make the healthcare
structures to be followed by public helping them in providing highest quality of services and
creating positive working conditions of employees. And, cultural responsiveness is a
healthcare service used after achieving cultural competence relating to health beliefs,
practices, culture and linguistic needs of diverse population which is a long-term
commitment, self and process-driven and an approach of responding the needs presented by
every individual helping in understanding of public disparities.

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