Driving home from work yesterday, I heard a story on NPR
about a psychotherapist who had to change his tactics for treating a large
portion of his patient base. Dr. Jim Cates lives and practices in Topeka,
Indiana, where there is a large Amish population.
I’m very familiar with the Amish gig since there is a huge community located in Lancaster, PA which is about an hour drive from Philadelphia. If you’re not, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about them. It’s a fascinating culture, based on unwavering religious beliefs and living a simple, honest life.
The program started with Dr. Cates discussing a patient’s family bringing her in to take an IQ test in order to obtain some kind of governmental benefits for her care, as she was mentally disabled. He realized rather quickly that an IQ test written for mainstream Americans was not going to give him insight into an Amish person’s IQ. She had no cultural reference for many of the questions asked. It would almost be like an American taking this Aboriginal Australian IQ test. He realized then that he had to change his methods if he wanted to treat this population.
The program also talked about the differences he applied to treating Amish teenagers who acquired alcohol or drug dependence during rumspringa. Truly, cultural competence is becoming more and more important as the lines between cultures blur.
Check out the written article here.
