Health Matters: A Pocket Guide for Working with Diverse Cultures and Underserved Populations

At last ... an indispensable and practical handbook for health care, social work, and public health professionals who encounter diverse cultures every day.

Immigrant, minority and refugee populations make up a quarter of our population, but special challenges await the doctors, nurses, clinical care providers, social workers, public health professionals and others who care for our diverse population on a daily basis. Some groups lack health insurance, arrive with no medical records or present with unfamiliar conditions. Access to care can be daunting, and often there are significant language barriers. At a fundamental level, basic concepts of what good health is, where disease originates and how to treat illness can vary dramatically from group to group.

Health Matters, based on the highly successful handbook from Iowa that has helped scores throughout the nation and abroad, shows how providers - and their institutions - can achieve a level of cultural competence essential for their work. Included in this comprehensive guide are summaries of the experience of 14 cultural groups; strategies for developing culturally appropriate care; and critical information on the cultural patterns, health practices and underlying belief systems of underserved groups.

Health Matters is an essential guide for anyone delivering health care in our rapidly changing communities.

Dr. Michele Yehieli is currently an Associate Professor in the Division of Health Promotion and Education at the University of Northern Iowa and Executive Director of Project EXPORT Center of Excellence, a project of the National Institute of Health. The recipient of many awards and honors, Yehieli completed her master's and doctorate degrees with honors in international public health at the University of California at Los Angeles. Dr. Yehieli has nearly twenty years of field experience in public health, both domestically and internationally, and she is the founder and director of the award-winning Global Health Corps.

Mark A. Grey is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Northern Iowa. He is also Director of the Iowa Center for Immigrant Leadership and Integration (formerly the New Iowans Program), an award-winning program that provides consultation, training, and publications to Iowa communities, churches, organizations, and employees as they deal with the unique challenges and opportunities associated with influxes of immigrant and refugee newcomers.