This work is presented as a resource for health care and social service providers who work with members of the Cambodian American community. Recent field work in Cambodian villages, long-term involvement in the Columbus, Ohio, Cambodian community, interviews with providers in several major east coast refugee population centers, and an extensive interdisciplinary literature review provide baseline cultural data that may be used by care providers to elicit more detailed and accurate information from individual patients and clients. The three-part, two-volume work includes a chapter on ethical issues in transcultural health and human services, an overview of Cambodian history to the diaspora, a multidimensional discussion of religion and values (including Cham, Khmer Islam, and Cambodian Christian as well as Theravada Buddhism and popular religion), daily life and life passages as presented both in Cambodia and in the United States, health and healing beliefs and practices, the hospitalization experience, and current and emerging social, health, and mental health issues. Also included are chapters on communication (including working with interpreters) and a model for a universal cultural assessment tool. An appendix compiles implications for health care and social service providers. By advocating a hypothesis-testing approach to all data, reliance on stereotypes is discouraged.
