The New York Times on Hmong Shamans Caring for Hospital Patients
by Danny Fisher
There’s a neat article in the New York Times today about Hmong shamans visiting the sick in hospitals in New York. Not only is the piece really interesting in and of itself, but it points to a larger trend chaplains would do well to take note of:
A recent survey of 60 hospitals in the United States by the Joint Commission, the country’s largest hospital accrediting group, found that the hospitals were increasingly embracing cultural beliefs, driven sometimes by marketing, whether by adding calcium-and iron-rich Korean seaweed soup to the maternity ward menu at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, on the edge of Koreatown, or providing birthing doulas for Somali women in Minneapolis.
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Hi Danny,
Thanks for posting this. I live in St. Paul, MN and have worked with the immigrant communities here, including the Hmong, for about 10 years now. It’s been really interesting to watch how places like hospitals have changed to work with the diversity of beliefs now present. I think it actually has helped open up medical practice here in general a little bit, so that complimentary approaches to care are a little more accepted and offered more, which is a good thing in my book.