Is Modern Health Care Forgetting the Most Important Piece of Healing?
by Nkeiruka Onyenekwu, MD, Internal and Emergency Medicine
“Don’t forget that you're treating people. You are not treating disease, but people.”
- Dr. Alton Ochsner
Medicine can now land robots in the operating room and AI in the reading room. But in exam rooms and ICUs, patients and families keep repeating the same haunting words: “We don’t feel heard. We don’t feel understood.” Technology is advancing but when the human voice gets lost, even the most sophisticated care feels empty.
This dissatisfaction doesn’t stem from a lack of medical expertise. Most health care providers are good if not great at what they do. And although not everyone is/was motivated to be in medicine for altruistic reasons, most want to do good by their patients. The dissatisfaction often arises from gaps in shared decision-making and a failure to integrate spiritual, cultural, and family values into care. In many communities, particularly those underserved or with limited resources, health is not seen as only physical. Health is also spiritual, relational, and cultural. Ignoring this reality creates frustration, erodes trust, and often worsen health outcomes.
In this article, we’ll explore:
Features of health systems that prioritize holistic, culturally and spiritually informed care.
How these features impact trust, decision-making, and healing.
Practical, low-cost shifts underserved communities can adopt to better align care with cultural and spiritual values.
The Missing Piece:
Why Spiritual and Cultural Care Matters
Western health systems are often structured around measurable outcomes and how quickly we get to those outcomes like blood pressure control, tumor shrinkage, procedure completed, etc. But health, as many traditions remind us, is not only about survival. It’s about spiritual, mental and emotional health as well. How can we live with dignity, connection, and meaning?
For example, in many cultures:
● Faith and prayer are central to coping with illness.
● Family input is expected in major medical decisions, not seen as interference.
● Healing practices whether through music, storytelling, or traditional practices bring comfort, shared wisdom, respect, and collective strength alongside modern therapies.
When health systems overlook these dimensions, care may still meet the technical ‘standard’ i.e. the labs are checked, the procedures are done. Yet patients can feel marginalized or even dismissed. Imagine being told you must make an immediate decision about life support for a loved one, while your cultural tradition teaches that elders, extended family, or spiritual leaders should guide such choices. Without space for these voices, families may leave feeling disrespected, misunderstood or unheard, even if the medical care was by-the-book. In the absence of creative, culturally responsive approaches, ‘average’ care can become deeply detrimental to a patient’s dignity, healing, and well-being.
Features of Health Systems that Get It Right
Health systems that integrate spiritual and cultural informed care often share certain characteristics. These features don’t require endless budgets or massive overhauls, but they do require intentional design and leadership commitment.
1. Shared Decision-Making with Cultural Humility
● Invite patients and families into the conversation as partners.
● Ask: “Who else should be part of this decision?” or “What beliefs should guide us?”
● Builds trust and prevents families from feeling sidelined.
2. Integration of Spiritual Care
● Include chaplains, faith leaders, or culturally relevant healers.
● Even small clinics can keep a list of local leaders available on call.
● Acknowledges that illness affects spirit as much as body.
3. Cultural Competency as Ongoing Practice
● Provide continuous staff training in humility, bias, and communication.
● Communities evolve and care teams should evolve with them.
4. Accessibility by Design
● Address language, transportation, scheduling, and financial barriers.
● Accessibility means more than ramps. It means easy entry to care.
5. Community Engagement
● Host listening sessions with patients and families.
● Solutions created with communities last longer than those imposed on them.
Small Shifts for Underserved Communities
It’s easy to assume these features require big money and big institutions. But underserved communities, even with limited resources, can adopt small but powerful shifts without draining time, energy, or finances.
1. Appoint a Family Health Advocate
Recognize the relative who already coordinates care. Ask: “Who do you trust to help with decisions?”
2. Create a Spiritual Care Contact List
A simple list of local priests, pastors, rabbis, imams, or spiritual leaders can make a big difference. Costs nothing but outreach.
3. Add One Question to Intake Forms
“Is there anything about your faith, culture, or traditions that would help us care for you better?”
4. Use Group Visits and Community Spaces
Hold group sessions in libraries, churches, or community centers to save time and reduce stigma.
5. Leverage Volunteers and Peer Navigators
Train community volunteers to help with translation, transportation, or system navigation.
6. Emphasize Listening in Staff Culture
Encourage staff to pause and ask: “What’s most important to you right now?”, a no-cost shift that transforms care.
Rebuilding Trust Where It’s Broken
When families feel a doctor is rushing them or worse, threatening to take decisions “away” if they don’t choose quickly, trust fractures. Health care then feels adversarial, not supportive. For underserved communities, who may already carry a history of medical racism, neglect, or cultural dismissal, this compounds deep wounds.
By contrast, when clinicians demonstrate respect for faith, family, and cultural traditions, patients often describe the care as healing even if the medical outcome was not a cure. A grandmother with chronic illness may die in the hospital but if her pastor was present, her family included, and her cultural rituals respected, her family will say: “She was cared for with dignity.”
This is the true measure of a health system that serves.
Moving Forward: What’s Possible Now
We don’t need to wait for billion-dollar health reforms to make care more humane. The dissatisfaction many families express such as “They didn’t listen, they didn’t respect our values, they pressured us” can be addressed by shifts in communication, humility, and community partnership.
● For health leaders: Prioritize staff training in cultural humility and shared decision-making.
● For clinicians: Slow down enough to ask one extra question about beliefs and family input.
● For communities: Build networks of spiritual and cultural leaders who can partner with local clinics.
● For families: You have every right to say, ‘This is important to our family. Can you help us honor it?’”
Conclusion
Providing a holistic approach to healthcare means going beyond lab tests and scans. It’s about caring for the whole person, embracing physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being, as well as honoring their culture and values.
Health systems that prioritize spiritual and culturally informed care, holistic healing, and accessibility do more than treat disease. They restore dignity, rebuild trust, and create space for families and communities to be part of healing.
At Mirasol, we help design systems that honor connection and healing, and we foster environments where both providers and patients can thrive. If your organization is ready to explore how to integrate these values into your work, complete the form below to start the conversation.