- Title
- Outback healing: traditional, complementary and alternative medicine across shifting socio-cultural landscapes
- Creator
- Hastings, Aqua Y.
- Relation
- Complementary Medicine and Culture: The Changing Cultural Territory of Local and Global Healing Practices p. 47-82
- Relation
- https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=61994
- Publisher
- Nova Science Publishers
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (TCAM) is a popular form of healthcare globally. Although comprised of a diversity of modalities and practices that have emerged, and continue to emerge from an array of socio-cultural backgrounds, TCAM is underpinned by universal principles of holism. That is, practitioners approach healthcare with definitions of health that extend beyond 'an absence of disease'. Conceptualisations of health are shaped by cultural contexts. In view of this, a study was conducted in remote Outback Australia to explore how people experience health in their use and practice of TCAM. Its aim was to understand the role of TCAM in providing culturally accessible healthcare. The World Health Organisation recognises TCAM's role in improving health equity through its cultural accessibility, especially in rural and remote areas. Given a comparatively poor standard of health and relatively frequent use of TCAM among remote area dwelling Australians, this study fills a gap by increasing sociological understanding of what health means, and of the socio-cultural factors that make TCAM healthcare relevant to people living outback. A constructionist approach to the research and a feminist theoretical framework have been adopted, to permit recognition of the multiple social, cultural, and political factors that determine health realities and experiences of the research subjects. Constructionism is a research approach that aims to understand how people perceive their own reality, considering that everyone interprets reality according to their own socially-constructed worldview. Applying feminist theory to the study provided a means of validating experiences of health and healthcare that exist outside of conventional conceptual domains of health. Interviews were conducted with people who use, or use and practice TCAM in remote Outback Australia. The data obtained was organised using thematic analysis. The research findings highlight that people's experiences of health are contingent on interactions they have with social, cultural, and geographic environments. An enhanced understanding of the ways in which people conceptualise and experience health, in this case through the use and practice of TCAM, can help address healthcare access and specific needs, thereby contributing to improved health outcomes. In a hot and dusty township in outback Australia, next to the police station, there is a nicely renovated house with dark grey shutters. It's cool in there, and the fresh-pressed receptionist invites me to a seat and offers a glass of filtered alkaline water whilst I wait for my chiropractic appointment. When it's my turn, I lie on a table with immaculate white sheets. The chiropractor checks my records and proceeds to expertly manipulate my spine to correct any subluxations. She measures my progress towards a goal of optimal health and records this carefully. After the treatment I make my payment to the receptionist, where I am able to claim a rebate from my private health fund. Down the street, a bit further again and around the corner, is another house. This one has a deeply shaded verandah and is painted leaf green. Inside, maybe, depending on the day, I can find a ngangkari - a traditional Australian Aboriginal healer. My friend has brought me here. He introduces me, for he is an established thread in the weavings of social networks here, and I am not. After a wait, quite a wait, a barefoot woman emerges and glances me over. She gestures for me to enter a room and lie on a treatment table. Her eyes are yellowed, and deeply kind. She speaks to me but I do not understand. She rubs my forehead vigorously, and then my belly. There is a lingering smell of leaf smoke in the air. My condition is temporary, and she assures me my spirit is strong. I do not warrant having a stone sucked from me. After the treatment I make a payment at reception , but I cannot make a claim from my health fund.
- Subject
- traditional medicine; complementary medicine; alternative medicine; healthcare; socio-cultural backgrounds; rural areas; constructionism; feminist theory; outback Australia
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1390832
- Identifier
- uon:33137
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781536119817
- Language
- eng
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