Transcript Lao Buddhist Case Story - Creative Artistic Nuance

Lao Buddhist Case Story
UNIITE’s “Health Care and
World Religions” series
Phase B
Lao Buddhist Case Story:
A 73-year old male
presented by
Malcolm Nazareth
Malcolm Nazareth
Case Story presenter’s profile
--Husband of Mariani Nazareth
--Co-founder and executive director, UNIITE
--Married Roman Catholic priest, serving at St.
Mary Community Catholic Church, Harding, MN
--part time faculty, St. Cloud State University
--Ph.D. in Religion (Temple University,
Philadelphia, PA), August ’98
--Hospital chaplaincy training, V.A. Medical
Center, St. Cloud, MN, ’99-’01
--Recipient of Anthony Soto Award, July ’06,
Rock Island, IL
--Many decades’ experience in India and USA
as teacher in numerous settings, and facilitator
of dialogues between diverse faiths and cultures
--Living and serving in Upper Midwest since ’98
Lao Buddhist Case Story (1)
Male, age 73
Living with 69-year old wife in
St. Cloud for more than 25 years
Served in Royal Lao army before
the Pathet Lao (communist) took
over Laos
Forced to live for several years in
a refugee camp in neighboring
Thailand
Lao Buddhist Case Story (2)
In ’79, moved with wife and 3
surviving kids to Ohio
In ’80, finally ended up in St. Cloud,
MN, where they raised and educated
their kids
In ’98, just before he retired, the
couple took a loan and purchased
their first home
Lao Buddhist Case Story (3)
Two of the couple’s children married Lao
Buddhist spouses and settled in the St.
Cloud area
One son is a “black sheep,” per Lao
Buddhist expectations, and is on his own
My info about the Lao senior male subject
is from this “unfavored” son—I have
never met the subject in person
Lao Buddhist Case Story (4)
Our 73-year old Lao Buddhist
male has never visited a clinic
or hospital during all of his
decades in the USA
His family worries about him
because he simply refuses to
take western medicine
Subject’s unfavored son says (1)
Father hasn’t ever been
“sociable” (unlike mom)
From his early 60s, father has
seemed “clinically depressed”
Ever since parents moved into
their “new home,” father’s
isolation and depression have
become more noticeable
Subject’s unfavored son says (2)
Father used to drive, but, ever
since retirement, hates to use his
car; mom drives him when he
simply has to go somewhere
Father uninterested in meeting
non- family members, or other
Lao community members
Father doesn’t attend even Lao
community celebrations
Subject’s unfavored son says (3)
Father has health issues, but no
primary health physician
He consistently rejects/resists
any suggestion that he should go
visit a clinic
When ill, he has recourse to
a) herbal remedies from “back
home in Laos” and
b) Buddha-offerings
Subject’s unfavored son says (4)
Father “carries a bowl of water
outside the building
“He sets down the bowl, joins the
palms of his hands and closes his
eyes for a few minutes—in meditation
“His lips move as he devoutly says his
prayers.
“He then raises the bowl of water
skyward to the Buddha
“He sets it down and returns to the
house”
Theravada Buddhist “prayer”
an example
Buddham saranam gachhami
I go to the Buddha for refuge
Dhammam saranam gacchami
I pay homage to the Eightfold
Path
Sangham saranam gachhami
I take refuge in the (Buddhist)
community
Barriers to health care
Language? (Not really; children
help out; Bridge World Language
interpreters . . .)
Cost? (Not necessarily; Medicare,
Medicaid, Mid-Minnesota Family
Practice Center, Project H.E.A.L.)
Alienness of western health care
system? Probably . . .
Alienness of western health care
system? Probably . . . (1)
Back in Laos, for decades, our Lao
senior was accustomed to Lao
native healing traditions and to a
society with its well integrated
religion and culture
There, he also had a choice of
visiting some Lao physicians
(trained in western medicine) who
were far more affordable than here
Alienness of western health care
system? Probably . . . (2)
If, in St. Cloud, one can use an
effective “home remedy” (herbs,
spices, teas) put together with
natural products available at the
local Viet Tien Market or even at
Coborns, Cashwise, or Cub Foods,
why would one prefer a terribly
expensive route (western
medicine) with its potentially
deadly side effects?
Questions worth posing:
What factor lends itself (or leads
most) to healing?
Is it chemicals? Is it drugs?
Is it sophisticated western
medical knowledge acquired by
your typical biomedical
specialist?
Is it some type of aura around a
hospital building?
What exactly is our subject’s issue?
(1)
Is our 73-year old Lao male “mentally
ill”? (He’s clinically depressed,
probably due to
-isolation from community,
-haunting memories of war and
of dislocated refugee-camp life)
Is he culturally alienated?
(Although he has lived in St. Cloud for
25 + years, he doesn’t speak English—
unlike his wife, who does speak
‘Laoenglish’ quite well, loves gardening,
and socializes with others)
What exactly is our subject’s issue?
(2)
Is there “mental” illness that is not
intimately related to “physical”
illness, age, “spiritual” issues?
Are mind, body, and spirit split into
different / separate compartments?
In Lao Buddhist understandings of
health and illness, is there a more
holistic / wholesome way of viewing
disease, old age, and death which
westerners, esp. health care
providers in the USA, need to grasp?
Perhaps it’s the “western health care
system” that needs a “cure”?
Despite his family’s concerns, our Lao
senior is “hanging on” admirably
thanks to indigenous Lao medicine
and Buddhist spirituality—he’s a
survivor
The man’s Buddhist religion and Lao
culture are somehow serving him not
as barriers but as aids to healthy
living thus keeping him from
succumbing to disease
Our case story would
seem to indicate that
Some new-immigrants
come up with their own
resources and survive
inspite of the western
health care system, not
because of it
Questions to research further:
In St. Cloud area senior centers and nursing
homes or retirement homes, is the health
care system culturally compatible and
religiously sensitive to Lao Buddhist
seniors?
Given the situation of the Lao Buddhist and
other new-immigrant communities, how
could the health care system become more
“user friendly”?
What could cities/counties do now so that
Lao families will not get stressed out when
their seniors need more accessible end-oflife care?
How have medical and social facilities met the
religious and cultural needs of Lao seniors?
Questions such as these are moot:
+ethnic food availability?
+Lao language live translators?
+ethnic recreation?
+access to Lao Buddhist monks?
celebrations of life?
feasts and festivals?
When will we arrive at
a system where
the best of western medicine will
be complemented
by the best of non-western
medicines
in a manner which is affordable
and accessible to all?
Is an “adjustment” of the western health
care medical system long past overdue?
When will western health care providers
integrate western and non-western
styles of health care into
“integrative medicine”
“new medicine”
When will we experience a Copernican
revolution in US health care so that the
people and not big bucks are “up front
and center”?