Y.1. Stories to Save Lives: Health, Illness, and Medical Care in the South547 items
Date Deposited: 2019-10-25
Collection: Southern Oral History Program Interviews
Finding Aid: Doesn’t have a finding aid
Stories to Save Lives is a collection of oral histories focused on the experience of health, illness, and medical care in the South. The project aims to create a better understanding of how southerners’ experiences with healthcare have changed since the 1960s, how stories passed down through families and communities shape people’s beliefs and... Read more
Stories to Save Lives is a collection of oral histories focused on the experience of health, illness, and medical care in the South. The project aims to create a better understanding of how southerners’ experiences with healthcare have changed since the 1960s, how stories passed down through families and communities shape people’s beliefs and attitudes about health and illness, and how social and cultural differences impact the relationships between providers and patients. The goal is to study the past as well as the present, with an eye to informing future changes to the American healthcare system. The narrators in Stories to Save Lives are caregivers, doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers, and community members of different ages, racial and ethnic background, gender, sexuality, and socio-economic status. As a result, the interviews include recollections of healthcare from a multitude of perspectives and levels of experience. Many themes emerge throughout the collection including: the desire for self-sufficiency in life and healthcare; racial and gender disparities; memories and practice of home remedies; relationships between healthcare providers and patients; reliance on community support; beliefs in the influence of foodways; and cost of healthcare and insurance.Read less