Genetic Counseling/Consultation in South-East Asia: A Report from the Workshop at the 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Human Genetics

Olga Zayats, Srikant Sarangi, MK Thong , BH Chung, IF Lo , AS Kan, JM Lee, CD Padilla , EM Cutiongco-de la Paz , SM Faradz , P. Wasant

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper reports on the workshop 'Genetic Counseling/Consultations in South-East Asia' at the 10(th) Asia Pacific Conference on Human Genetics in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in December 2012. The workshop brought together professionals and language/communication scholars from South-East Asia, and the UK. The workshop aimed at addressing culture- and context-specific genetic counseling/consultation practices in South-East Asia. As a way of contextualizing genetic counseling/consultation in South-East Asia, we first offer an overview of communication-oriented research generally, drawing attention to consultation and counseling as part of a communicative continuum with distinctive interactional features. We then provide examples of genetic counseling/consultation research in Hong Kong. As other countries in South-East Asia have not yet embarked on communication-oriented empirical research, we report on the current practices of genetic counseling/consultation in these countries in order to identify similarities and differences as well as key obstacles that could be addressed through future research. Three issues emerged as 'problematic': language, religion and culture. We suggest that communication-oriented research can provide a starting point for evidence-based reflections on how to incorporate a counseling mentality in genetic consultation. To conclude, we discuss the need for creating a platform for targeted training of genetic counselors based on communication-oriented research findings
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Genetic Counseling
Volume22
Issue number6
Pages (from-to)917-924
Number of pages8
ISSN1059-7700
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes

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