Alma: Coping With Culture, Poverty, and Disability

This article raises questions about the ways culture affects the nature of health care services. By examining the life story of Alma, a Central American woman who has a daughter with disabilities; her interactions with health care providers; and my own assumptions about cultural differences, I note the impact of cultural differences on coping and adaptation in Alma and in the health care system when working with poor, non-English–speaking clients.