Posted 5/20/2009 1:59 PM (GMT -8)
I'm posting a new thread all together, now that I've corresponded with Peter and obtained his permission to start the discussion:
As I mentioned, I am the mother of an adult w/CF. I am taking a multicultural counseling class in my doctoral program right now and for our immersion project (get to know a population different from you), she said we could think outside the box of ethnicity and race. I decided to do my project on the CF population. I think this will be a neat way to raise awareness of CF because I'll be looking at CFers through a cultural lens - how does the illness create a culture of its own, with its own social norms? (How is success defined, how are family relationships different, family size, is there discrimination against CF patients, what are the typical family roles?, etc...) Since CF patients don't physically gather together, the teacher is allowing my time spent on CF boards to count as "immersion", so I'm going to "hang out" with you guys this week and may post a time or two. We also have to do an in-depth dialogue with a member of the population, discussing our cultural similarities and differences. That's where you all come in....Would any of you (CF patient 18 or older) be willing to dialogue with me on this? It would need to be next week. I get to do a presentation at the end of the semester when I attend residency in VA, so I'm excited about the impact this perspective can make on getting more support for CF care and finding a cure. If you are interested, please email me at andrdyb@regent.edu
Thanks!