What are the specific cultural issues/conflicts? Give at least two examples. How are the characters affected? Give at least two examples. How might the issues discussed in the film/book affect patient care? Discuss two culturally respectful individual healthcare providers or institutional interventions.

One cultural conflict in The Help is the way in which some of the white people at that time  (the 1960s) in Mississippi believed that African American people harbored different kinds of germs that hurt whites. Though some of the white people might know that this is a myth, they nonetheless push for the construction of outhouses or separate bathrooms that their African American help can use. Another cultural conflict is that African American people do not trust white people; the racial conflicts they experience make them distrustful toward whites. For example, Aibileen and Minny, who are African American domestics, at first do not trust Skeeter, a white woman, and do not want to tell her their stories (which she uses to write a book). However, she eventually convinces them to trust her.
The historic distrust that African American people feel toward white people affects healthcare. African Americans and other types of patients representing diversity may feel that healthcare providers who are white might not understand their values or take their healthcare concerns seriously. In addition, they may feel that the healthcare industry is not willing to protect them or does not care about their rights.
The American Hospital Association (AHA), at the link below, describes hospital programs at NYU Lutheran Hospital in Brooklyn and the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in California. NYU Lutheran decided to work with community organizations and religious organizations to make sure patients from diverse backgrounds receive the healthcare they need to reduce healthcare disparities between people of color and white people. For example, they initiated an asthma program for Latino patients. The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford has instituted a program to help low-income people represent diversity in the surrounding areas receive healthcare.