Our Homes Our Health: Humanizing Health Care through Cultural Humility, Transformative Complicity, and Empowerment

Abstract

Currently, the United States is in crisis with record numbers of homeless or individuals who face inadequate living conditions. Research shows that there is a direct link between the rise of poor living environments and the overall health of a country's population. This awareness is now being addressed by the federal government's re-evaluation of health insurance coverage. The medical and social work professions are looking at alternative delivery models focused on interdisciplinary teams to humanize health care. The paradigms of cultural humility and transformative complicity are offered as important interventions to achieve this goal by strengthening hospital/community engagement. Whereas cultural humility addresses the power imbalance between health provider and patient, transformative complicity attends to our participation in inequity. Taking appropriate action increases our positive transformative potential leading toward more culturally and systemically responsive health care delivery. The case of "Hattie," an elderly African American woman, is discussed to portray actual and recommended interventions.

Promoting LatinX Generativity: Cultural Humility and Transformative Complicity Through Geriatric Teams

“…Humanizing social and health care services implies addressing the needs of elderly patients from their perspective (and that of their loved ones) in a kinder and more responsive way (Newberry et al, 2014). Given the complexity of their socio-psychological and health profiles, health care teams are crucial to elderly well-being.…”

“…Transformative complicity (Duntley-Matos, 2014; Duntley-Matos et al, 2015; Newberry et al, 2014) requires a careful analysis of the structural, ideological, and behavioral participation of each member (and of the health service organization itself) in the social oppression of vulnerable groups. It seeks to address the political, cultural, and economic ideologies that target these populations within the daily functioning of the health care system.…”

“…To effectively address these concerns, we discuss the need for cultural humility (Ortega & Duntley-Matos, 2014; Ortega & Faller, 2011; Tervalon & Murray-Garcia, 1998), transformative complicity (Duntley-Matos, 2014; Newberry, Duntley-Matos, Shiery, Brass, & Beu, 2014), and a system-based empowerment approach (Gutiérrez & Ortega, 1991). We review the changing age-based demographics of LGBTQ and Latinx elderly populations, the history and present circumstances of geriatric teams from a force field analytical perspective, the shift in cost as we move to team-based home care, the relevance of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPAC), and its policy of Accountable Care Organizations (ACO).…”