Fahimeh Andersen

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• Fahimeh Andersen

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A literary explanation
Cancer is that one or maybe several cells
begin to grow out of control or decentralized, if
you wish. Very rarely the tumour cell allows
itself to be controlled by other means than its
own which leads to uncontrolled growth.Finally
the whole body dies because one individual cell
put individualism above solidarity and
collaboration.   P.C. Jersild, Swedish writer
from the novel "Babels Hus", 1978
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• Who are they?

• 60 foreign workers from rural districts (Turkey,
  Pakistan, Albania, Morocco etc.)
• 70 political refugees (Chile, Vietnam, East
  Europe etc.)
• 80 political refugees (Iranians, Lebanese,
  Palestinians, Tamils etc.)
• 90 war refugees (from Africa, former Yugoslavia,
  Iraqis and Kurds)

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• Background of refugees and immigrants

• Differences
• Nationality
• Religion
• Cultural background
• Village/town
• Social background
• Level of education
• Duration of stay in Denmark
• Knowledge of Danish Well-being in Danmark

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• Cultural differences

• Immigrants
• religious
• peasant society
• extended family
• community
• honour/shame
• pluralistic under-standing of illness

• Danes
• worldly
• Industrial society
• Nuclear family and welfare state
• individuality
• guilt
• biological under-standing of illness

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• Biological understanding of illness

• Based on a mechanical understanding of the body
  well-known in Denmark
• A health system that treats everything -
  professional treaters

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• Pluralistic understanding of illness

• Other causes for illness (differs from biological
  incl. mental health illness, sexual
  dysfunction, handicaps and childlessness)
• Causes
  
• punishment of God
• envy (evil eyes)
• displacement of balance (hot/cold)
• Biological

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• Models of treatment

• Prayers and sacrifice
• Fatimas eye - amulets (quotations from holy
  books)
• Food habits
• Herbal medicine
• Bio medicine

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• Meeting the Danish Health System

• Important elements
• Communication (language and culture, including
  the understanding of different illnesses)
• The organisation of the Health System (lack of
  understanding and knowledge about the system)

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• Problems with medical advice and treatment

• Communication
• Knowledge of the body (anatomy and physiology)
• Cultural taboos and myths

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• Nutritional problems

• Malnutrition
• Using own food culture (boiling vegetables too
  long, eating icecream for dessert, too much
  bottled milk/juice
• Insufficient knowledge about Danish foodproducts
  and healthy food
• No energy to stop children pestering about
  sweets, soft drinks and chips (status symbols)
• Consequences
• bad teeth
• iron and vitamin deficiancy
• overweight etc.

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Smoking cessation how?

• Communication
• Motivation
• Acting

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Case Patient from Iraq

• 65-year old male person
• Has lived a hard life, like Iraqian people do,
  not a sheltered life, like in the west
• Tonsil-cancer
• Have smoked all his life

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Case continued

• Patients view - Your treatment can not do me
  anything worse, than I have already experienced
• And The cigarette is my only pal
• What do we say?

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• Søren Kierkegaard

In order to be able to help somebody, I need to
have more knowledge than him, though most of all
I need to know what he knows. If I don't then my
superior knowledge do not help him at all. If I
decide to use my superior knowledge anyway then I
am either vain or proud and instead of helping
him I wish to be admired by him. But all true
help begins with humiliation Fist the helping
person needs to humble himself before the person
he wish to help and hereby realize that helping
is not being domineering but patient, that
helping is willingness to submit to being wrong
and not know what the other person knows.