Tag: family narrative

Christie’s Story

This four minute interview centers on Christie Arntsen, a woman who has made assisted dying plans after her likely terminal cancer diagnosis in 2013. It includes an interview with her partner, Jon, and his journey in understanding and accepting her decision for assisted suicide. She talks about her desire for a choice when she reaches the time she feels ready to die. Although cancer is the diagnosis, the interview deals primarily with themes of assisted suicide/end of life, loss, and choice. She describes how her experience has led her towards advocacy for assisted dying; in fact the video was filmed, produced, and released by Dignity in Dying, a campaign in favor of assisted death. The story can give insight into why someone might wish to have assisted suicide as an option and consider the option well before their health deteriorates. Christie is shown in her home, with her partner, and engaged with her family, daily activities, and activism, rather than in a clinic, hospital, or hospice setting. The story can also be discussed as a form of advocacy and persuasion.

Worlds Apart

Worlds Apart is a documentary split into four 10-15 minute sections that each focus on a different cross-cultural health experience. We delve into a Muslim man’s journey with stomach cancer when he turned down chemotherapy due to interference with daily prayer. We follow his daughter communicating with the doctor to see if there are any ways that both could be achieved. It also tells the story of a Lao woman with a hole in her heart who can receive surgery to fix it, but whose mother and grandmother are concerned that the scar will inhibit her Buddhist reincarnation. We then see a Black man waiting for a kidney transplant who searches for a nephrologist he can trust and speaks out on the disparity in waiting times for transplants between white and Black patients. Lastly, there is the story of when a Puerto Rican woman with diabetes, hypertension, asthma and depression turns to home remedies after her mother’s death, which she believes was caused by taking too much prescription medication. This documentary showcases narratives that illuminate the limits of Western medicine and expand our ideas of how the American medical system can grow to be more inclusive, equitable, and sensitive. From the intersection between medicine and religion to institutional racism to the clash between types of medicating, Worlds Apart is an excellent resource to learn about a variety of cross-cultural healthcare topics in a person-centered manner. It would fit into more sociological classes like cultural anthropology or a world medicine class, but it could also be useful in a training course for pre-med or med students to broaden their ideas of how to individualize healthcare. It could be shown in class to prompt a discussion or assigned as homework along with a written reflection or essay assignment. View the “Facilitator’s Guide” in the Teaching Materials tab to find more specific ways to integrate it into a course. This documentary is not open access, but it can be viewed on WorldCat, which many institutions have access to.

Worlds Apart Facilitator’s Guide

This is a thorough facilitator’s guide on how to facilitate class discussions on the cross-cultural healthcare documentary Worlds Apart (a detailed summary can be found in the Search for Stories tab). In brief, Worlds Apart is a documentary split into four 10-15 minute sections that each focus on a different cross-cultural health experience, including a Muslim man’s journey with stomach cancer, a Lao woman with a hole in her heart, a Black man waiting for a kidney transplant, and a Puerto Rican woman with diabetes, hypertension, asthma and depression. This documentary showcases narratives that illuminate the limits of Western medicine and expand our ideas of how the American medical system can grow to be more inclusive, equitable, and sensitive. The facilitator's guide provides background on the filmmakers and their intentions. It includes suggestions for facilitators such as setting ground rules for discussion and asking students to jot down notes during the documentary. The four-part narrative-driven documentary is summarized, and then each section is broken down in great detail, so even someone who did not watch the film could understand the exact circumstances of each family and individual being featured. After each synopsis we also receive medical background information and a variety of discussion questions specifically tailored to different issues discussed in the stories. Each section has a separate “focus” also outlined, ranging from language barriers to explanatory modules to informed consent to racial/ethnic healthcare disparities to non-adherence to medications. This guide was created “to give health care professionals an engaging experience through which to explore ideas about cross-cultural issues in health care and to learn from the actual experiences of both patients and clinicians,” but could also easily be adapted to a university classroom setting to guide student discussions. The guide does not include any assignments, but any of the issues headlining the discussion topics could work well as research essay prompts.

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate situations, flawed coping mechanisms, mayhem, and other things that happened.

This is a graphic memoir written by a comedic blogger, divided into chapters that retell various life experiences in words and digital drawings, ranging from sibling relationships to unruly dogs to childhood memories to unconventional methods of dealing with depression. Brosh has experienced depression throughout her life, and this is a topic she digs into candidly in her book. Selected chapters of this book could be used as brief, accessible readings in a class on mental illness or in a training for health care providers. A follow up assignment could invite students to make graphic narratives of their own and could invite discussion of how humor can be used to make difficult topics less taboo.

(Not so) golden years

Daughter describes the stress of caring for her aging parent from geographically distant place. Details many issues that created burnout in her caregiver role, including feeling isolated and embarrassed about her struggle until she found out all of the problems she faced were very common for caregivers in her position. Useful to discuss how difficult it is to care for elderly parents, especially from a distance, and caregiver burnout.

¿Cómo superar el duelo? Mi experiencia personal

This story describes the narrator's struggle with grief after the death of her partner in a car crash. Her persistent questions of "why did this have to happen" and "why did they deserve this" led to depression, barely getting out of bed, and friends noticing changes in personality. When she finally left her house, the fresh air convinced her to see a psychologist. She concludes that the pain never goes completely away but becomes less paralyzing over time. At 1.5-2 pages, this is appropriate for upper intermediate Spanish learners or a community group to discuss bereavement and how therapy can help. Placement within a website that promotes therapy does forecast that therapy is the answer to problems.

El camino hacia la audición de Mariángeles

The link takes you to a website in Spanish that gives detailed information about cochlear implants. One section labeled "Historias de Usuarios" has several stories from people who have successful experiences with the devices. One example: Mariángeles, an Argentinian woman, feels "reborn" after cochlear implant surgery and returns to study at the university. She says that now that she has her “ears” and her son is an adult, she can fully focus on herself again.

Un suicidio (asistido) en Colombia que nació del amor de un hijo por su madre

The author lived with parents and aunts. When father and her aunts died, she was left alone to help her mother with grief and deteriorating health. The two women struggled with the idea of assisted suicide, but eventually chose that path over further suffering. About 3 pages; workable for intermediate and advanced learners, compelling storytelling for a community group.

Heart Sounds

In this 5 minute read, a first year medical student discusses treating a patient whose family had to overcome indifference in the ER in order for him to receive treatment. Additionally, the medical student illustrates managing the unknown when assisting a patient with an advanced and nuanced condition. The student decides that the best treatment they can provide is listening to the family's complaints, fears, and happy moments in order to encourage them to keep believing in this patient's future. The story touches on cardiology as a specialty and would benefit pre-medical undergraduates as well as professional students recently starting their health profession. It highlights the importance, and difficulty, of active listening.

Un último acto de amabilidad íntima

Michelle Friedman describes providing home care for her estranged younger brother as he dies from advanced pancreatic cancer. She touches on difficult topics of conversation, her brother's depression, and grappling with death and religion. An English language translation of this essay is available under the title, "A last act of intimate kindness."