Cultural Conversation on Health, Illness, and Disability

dnllamoreno

Hello everyone!

I am a second-year Occupational Therapy student from the University of the Philippines who's looking for anybody interested in a conversation or exchange on our views on health, illness and disability; and occupational therapy. This would be most helpful for my class as well as to further enrich my knowledge of different perspectives from different cultures, and share from the Filipino point of view as well.

Hope to have an exchange from all of you guys. Should you prefer correspondence via email (damoreno@up.edu.ph), I'm also up for that! All the best!

BillRoberts

dnllamoreno,

I am more than happy to talk to you about different views on health, illness, disability, and OT. If there are more responses on the other forums, let me know and I will join in there. Let me know what specific questions you have.

Thank you,
Bill

dnllamoreno

Hello sir Bill,

Thanks for replying, would greatly appreciate knowing more of what your own views are on health, illness, and disability? Moreover, in your own way, and based on your culture, practices, and occupations, what do you do to stay healthy?

Regards,
Dee

BillRoberts

Dee,

I hope that you are doing well. Regarding health, I believe that my health and health in general is the result of genetics, my environment, and how well I take care of myself. I believe that science shows us that part of my susceptibility to disease and other conditions is due to genetics, but if I eat well and exercise this will improve my health as well. I think that this reflects my cultural background of thinking that I can control my health up to a certain extent. There is a little part of me, however, that feels that there are many things I cannot control. When I do get sick, I tend to use Western medicine to treat it because that is what I am familiar with and that is what I am comfortable with as it aligns with the culture I was raised in. But, I know that other types of medicine work for others based on their cultural backgrounds as well.

Regarding disability, my views have changed based on my education and the ideas I have been exposed to over the years. I believe that in many cases disability is socially constructed and demonstrates the privilege and power of able-bodied people. Therefore, disability is a result of the actions or inaction of larger society. For instance, people who use wheelchairs are often disabled because the larger society does not think it is important enough to create spaces that are easily accessible.

This is just a small part of my ideas. Please let me know if you have more questions.

All the best,
Bill