Racine's Health Department has an ad in the Journal Times today. They were announcing three goals. Goal #1 caught my attention.
"Decrease infant mortality and improve birth outcomes in a culturally competent manner."
At the risk of exposing my cultural incompetence, I have a few suggestions. To improve birth outcomes, don't abort babies, don't smoke crack or cigarettes, don't drink, don't get knocked up at age 15. Do eat nutritious food, exercise moderately, rest, and listen to the advice of a doctor. To decrease infant mortality, don't sleep with your child, keep them away from violent people, feed them regularly and heed the advice of a pediatrician. And if you can't do that, give them up for adoption. If any of my suggestions hadn't already dawned on you, keep your pants on.
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9 comments:
What does "in a culturally competent manner" mean? I know it sounds very PC but really, what does it mean? If something or someone is "competent", that certainly means something, but to do something in a "culturally competent manner"?
Ask and ye shall be villified! No tea bags for you!
What does "in a culturally competent manner" mean? I know it sounds very PC but really, what does it mean? If something or someone is "competent", that certainly means something, but to do something in a "culturally competent manner"?
Ask and ye shall be villified! No tea bags for you!
OK, I guess I'm not competent to post.
Denis - now all you have to do is figure out how to spend $66,000 to get that message across.
Excellent rant Denis!
I have to second the question from your first poster: What exactly does "in a culturally competent manner" mean?
Sorry, but if I (or you) were to write a post suggesting something should be done in a "culturally competent manner", we'd be accused of racism.
"Decrease infant mortality and improve birth outcomes in a culturally competent manner."
PC, yes. Meaningless, no.
Basically, it means that the health Department should take in to account the audience when communicating a message, and that the message might have to be customized specific group...no one size fit all mentality.
Thanks anon, calunp, and shrubber for your comments. I have tried to imagine the meaning of "in a culturally competent manner." One possibility is that some folks sleep with there newborns and that this behavior may be tied to their culture. It also puts the kids at risk especially if one is a deep sleeper. So the trick for the Health Department is to end the behavior (sleeping with the infant) without insulting the culture. Of course it is impossible to challenge an aspect of a culture while being a multiculturalist.
Well, Tim, then wouldn't it be "in a culturally SENSITIVE manner"? I suspect that there are core competencies involved with raising children - feed them and give them water, don't shake them or dip them in boiling water, etc. - that do not change with one's "culture". To pretend that this is an issue of competencies is, well, incompetent.
The problem is not co-sleeping (personally, my guess is virtually all mothers do it), the problem you are referring to is unsafe co-sleeping. Most of the recent co-sleeping deaths in our community have occurred when the parent was drunk, sleeping on a couch, etc. I agree this is largely "cultural", but co-sleeping itself is not to blame. Many people may think that very few babies sleep with their parents, but we shouldn't be too quick to assume this. The number of parents that bring their babies into their bed at 4 am is probably quite high. And over half of parents bring their baby into bed with them at least part of the night. And the number that sleep with their infants the whole night is considerable as well. In fact, in most countries around the world sleeping with your baby is the norm, not the exception. And what is the incidence of SIDS in these countries? During the 1990s, in Japan the rate was only one tenth of the U.S. rate, and in Hong Kong, it was only 3% of the U.S. rate. These are just two examples.
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