Interacting effectively with people of different races, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds

Diversity Therapist

Living in both China and the U.S. has been a transformative experience not least in experiencing different kinds and levels of diversity across cultures. This experience will enhance my understanding of patients I see in my professional work, and as a citizen of both my nations on either side of the Pacific. Working as an intern at Weifang Hospital, then at Blanchard Valley Hospital Rehabilitation Findlay Campus, and participating in social organizations outside of school and work have convinced me that despite differences across and within my own multinational experience, we are all more alike than different in the majority of ways. Regardless of demographic characteristics, if the job of therapist is to heal, reduce and prevent pain and disability, then since all peoples share the capacity to experience pain and disability, the therapist has to treat the person, not the class or the gender or ethnicity, even though that fair and equal treatment may not be returned by those patients towards everyone in society.

My work making rounds and assisting senior residents at Weifang Hospital taught me that no matter our race; gender, social class or other attributes, we all are born uniformly helpless and dependent, blameless and more equal perhaps than at any other time over the rest of our lives. Multiculturalism is different in China than in the U.S., with different demographics across age, class and heritage, but all these people regardless of nation or culture were children once and deserve wellness even if they have grown into adults with all the prejudices and shortcomings they lacked as helpless dependents. Discrimination in the U.S. is also different than in China and I have experienced prejudice in many ways here but my work at Weifang reminds me to look beyond immediate situations and remember my duty to heal all people in pain or disability to the highest degree I am able and allowed.

My more specialized internship at Blanchard Valley carried this natural progression full circle, as I got to learn about the other end of life, mostly working with seniors, although my children and adult patients reminded me all stages of life are vulnerable to pain and disability. Nonetheless, restoring mobility to seniors nearing the end of their lives was both enriching and encouraging, to see how resilient and adaptive the body can be even under the burden of advancing age. Working with seniors taught me there is no race or gender that escapes the wear and tear of even the most comfortable life, and that even those of the highest economic status can experience reversal of fortune especially confronting end-of-life health costs. This has convinced me to preserve my health as long as I can even though a time of concern seems so far away.