Implications for Rehabilitation
Cultural differences may result in diverging and conflicting representations of health, illness and therapy, and this may hinder the healing process or even cause its failure.
Assessing health and illness representations (perception and definition of the problem and its solution) may help clinicians facilitate cross-personal communication and develop therapeutic alliance.
Cultural competence in health care is multi-faceted (individual, organization, health policies) and is becoming an unavoidable aspect of developing culturally adapted interventions.