Cross-Cultural Caring: A Handbook for Health Professionals. 2nd ed.

Ian W. Toal is a registered nurse in Winnipeg.

Most Canadians understand how our health-care system works: if something
is wrong with us, we either visit our family doctor or go to a hospital
emergency room where we expect a physician to do something to fix the
problem. But what if you have recently arrived from a country where a
visit to an institution was a frightening thing, where doctors were rare
and drugs even more scarce? If you have few social contacts here and a
limited understanding of how the health-care system works, you may be
reluctant or unable to seek medical attention.

Cross-Cultural Caring sets out to help health-care professionals
understand some of the problems recent immigrants may face in accessing
the health-care system. Seven different non-Western cultural groupings
are presented, ranging from Central American to Asian cultures. Each
group is discussed with reference to immigration patterns and beliefs
about health, illness, and medical practitioners. One chapter deals with
the unique problems encountered by refugees in Canada.

The book has a West Coast focus, so health-care professionals in other
parts of Canada may see immigrant groups not discussed by the authors.
That caveat aside, Cross-Cultural Caring is a timely and valuable
resource.