Tech Salon

Shamans, Herbs and MDs: Cultural Competency and the Diversity of Hmong Healing Worlds – A Multimedia Demonstration

Shamans, Herbs and MDs is an intimate documentary portrait of Hmong health and healing. The first of its kind to be created by a Hmong filmmaker, it tells the stories of several individuals who are pursuing health as patients, or offering care as providers. Through vivid depiction of health-seeking strategies as diverse as herbal baths, Christian prayer and pharmaceutical regimens, the film delves into life and death issues confronted by Hmong Americans. It explores contemporary issues such as the dilemmas of cultural competency and the future of integrative medicine. Centering on Minnesota, the film maps the local landscape of health alternatives and care options, and travels as far away as Asia, raising issues relevant to health and healing everywhere. We show multiple Hmong viewpoints on Western health care, delving into the meanings for them of rival approaches such as shamanism, surgery, acupuncture, herbal treatment and pharmaceuticals. We will also follow a range of practitioners, both Hmong and non-Hmong, who provide services as medical doctors, traditional healers and other health care professionals such as hospital interpreters. Sites of multicultural training, medical institutions, and educational milieux will be juxtaposed with the environments of patients, traditional healers and health seekers. Given the nationwide prominence in cultural competence training of the influential book on a Hmong family’s encounter with American medicine, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the case of the Hmong is especially pertinent, especially in the Twin Cities where much of the film is being shot. Through the film project we also want to explore what can be learned about disparity reduction from listening to these immigrant medical consumers and providers.           

Shamans, Herbs and MDs is currently a work-in-progress and being developed as a multimedia tool. We are a team comprised of a Hmong filmmaker/community activist and an anthropologist with a thirty-year background working with the Hmong people. We envision the film as facilitating patient empowerment through creating opportunities for medical consumers to speak out about what’s needed in institutional and policy change. In addition to the feature-length film, users will be able to access themed chapters as smaller segments. After viewing these chapters they will be prompted with questions and themes for further discussion or consideration. An interactive website will also be made available with comparable options. This will allow patients, health care providers, instructors and community workers to fully explore the themes of the film. For the Diversity RX conference, participants will get hands-on previews of samples of these modalities and have an opportunity to discuss them with the producers. A second objective is to solicit feedback on the effectiveness of the materials for cultural competence/disparity reduction curriculum, training and planning. Sample themes include 1) Hmong models of integrative health care 2) Hmong  alternative healing approaches 3) The lived reality of health care disparities for Hmong immigrants 4) Hmong health care providers’ perspectives on disparity reduction 5) The effectiveness of teaching the Hmong or other groups as paradigms for cultural competency.