On the Sidewalk Bleeding

Alysha Nesbit

13NHA



“Contemporary health practices in New Zealand”

Question One:

  a) Identify your 3 practices and the health condition you will write about in this assessment.

      Health Practice 1 (Western) – Anti- Depressants

      Health Practice 2 (CAM or TM) - St John’s Wort

      Health Practice 3 (either)




  b) Introduce your assignment by describing in general terms the difference between the understanding and beliefs (or the philosophy) of western/scientised medicine and complementary/alternative (CAM) or traditional (TM) medicine.




      The term Western medicine is often used to describe the treatment of a medical condition in which you use medication given by doctors, nurses and other general healthcare providers who employ the methods of Western medicine and scientific tradition. Western/scientised medicine has a long history of safety to back up numerous treatment or drug approvals for the use and benefit of the public. It also goes through a comprehensive testing process from the lab to several different aspects of patient testing before being released out to the public. However there are several disadvantages to using western/scientised medicine. Firstly being the cost of it all can be quite expensive, with the use of the surgerical equipment on top of the usual costs of going and seeing the medical expertise. Another downside to using western/scientised medicine is that although in some cultures it is allowed other cultures it is not evidently meaning certain people are missing out on vital treatment. Lastly another negative to using western/scientised medicine is that it does not counteract all the other aspects of that person’s well-being. Western medicine procedures and treatments simply target the cause of the problem without any relation to any other dimensions of one’s Hauora. Complementary/alternative or traditional medicine on the other hand is the term often used to describe health products...