ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how healthcare pluralism works in practice. Li et al., outline how mental illness in Chinese communities across the globe tends to carry immense stigma and shame which creates a barrier to social acceptance. The increased use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in health care means that health professionals need to be educated well enough to advise such families effectively, but this is rarely a topic that is included in the UK nursing curricula. Those who subscribe to emotionalistic disease theories believe that illness and disease can be caused by intense emotional states such as sadness, anger, jealousy, shame, grief or fright. The chapter provides a case study which explores the complexities and challenges of caring for someone whose health beliefs may be in conflict with one's own. Treatments such as acupuncture and reflexology are sometimes offered as part of the holistic care package in the National Health Service (NHS).
