- Playing
- Culture of the Mind
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- Hana Baba
At San Francisco General Hosptital, psychiatrists have been treating patients in race-specific wards- the Black focus unit, the Asian unit, and the Latino unit. The idea is that you can't treat ethnic communities for mental illness without knowing about their cultures. It's controversial because many physicians argue what we have in common is more important than our differences. Still, the idea is catching on.
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Piece Description
At San Francisco General Hosptital, psychiatrists have been treating patients in race-specific wards- the Black focus unit, the Asian unit, and the Latino unit. The idea is that you can't treat ethnic communities for mental illness without knowing about their cultures. It's controversial because many physicians argue what we have in common is more important than our differences. Still, the idea is catching on.
2 Comments
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Review of Culture of the MindThis piece concerns a very interesting topic: mental health in the US and how health care professionals are grappling with well-established practices that do not necessarily transcend cultural differences and, thus, meet the needs of their diverse patients All of the right notes were hit in the narration in discussing the troubles emerging because of linguistic differences between patients and health care providers, the real lack of cross-cultural understanding, the need for greater diversity training, and the real differences in experience vis-a-vis prejudice and racism. Yet, for all the topics covered by the piece, it lacked a depth of analysis and passion that would have given it a needed sense of urgency, a reason for being written and produced at this time in history. Perhpas, focusing in on the SF General's program itself and the real struggles occuring in the unit would have better illustrated the powerful tensions in our society being explored by cultural psychologists than did the string of little vignettes pieced together. |
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Dmae Roberts
Posted on August 16, 2005 at 06:06 PM | Permalink
Review of Culture of the Mind
As much as I like Hana Baba's work in prior pieces such as her Angel Island feature, I really think this piece needs another edit and the voicing redone. The story is a good one. For too long cultural differences have not entered the discussion of mental health. There are some good interviews and sound in this piece but it's way too long as a feature at 11 minutes. I think it needs to be around the 7-8 minute range so that it will flow more cohesively and keep listener interest. The narration also needs to be redone to match the tone of the piece. Reporters often make the mistake of trying to sound the same and offer the same delivery with every story. While consistency is good, each story deserves its own way of telling. The opening was rather shocking to me in the offhand delivery of the narration. To talk about Iris Chang's horrific suicide so casually without explaining culturally why she would commit this act does the very thing that the mental health professionals in this piece are trying not to do. Sadly, I can't recommend this piece right now though I know it would be stronger and more effective with a rewrite.