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Importance of culture in social work
Importance of culture in social work
Importance of culture in social work
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Today, America has consistently undergone major demographic changes. According to the 1990 to 2000 census, the population growth rate was the highest in the country’s history. Moreover, the population growth was accompanied by a change in people of color, and it is apparent that these changes in people with color increase and alter the diversity issues facing social workers daily in their agencies and institutions. The difficulty associated with cultural diversity in the country influences all aspects of professional social work practice, and it is imperative that social workers are tasked to deliver culturally competent services to an ever-growing wide range of clients. Theme The article, A Solution-Focused Approach to Cross-Cultural Clinical Social Work Practice: Utilizing Cultural Strengths, by Lee, is an attempt to address the numerous challenges and problems that social work practitioners encounter. They encounter these problems when providing services to people from diverse cultures, especially minority races and ethnic groups (Lee, 2003). According to Lee (2003), the greatest challenges that face social work practice in today’s society is the problems of applying practices and knowledge theories to racial and ethnic groups. Therefore, the theme of Lee’s study was to identify and evaluate an approach that social workers …show more content…
Firstly, I now acknowledge the impact that cultural diversity has on the delivery of social services. Globalization is occurring throughout the world and leading to numerous changes in various sectors of the economy. Moreover, it is challenging long-standing theoretical perspectives that continue to inform practice in today’s society, and social work practice is no exception. Therefore, it is important for social workers to acknowledge these changes and improve their service delivery by incorporating solution-focused approaches (Lee,
In the social work practice, social workers should abide by and respect the protocol of their particular organization. The first ethical standard I would like to discuss is that a social worker has cultural competence and social (NASW, 1999). A social worker must possess the knowledge of values, customs, tradition and history, just to name a few, in order to have success with clients that may identify as something other than their own identity. Culture directly impacts human behavior. Within this case study, due to Mrs. Sanchez’s culture, she struggled to assimilate with the American culture and this included her being able to learn the English language.
It is of paramount consideration that social workers are conscious of, aware and sensitive to the cultural demands of their clientele. This is because culture is a pivotal factor upon which a great deal of conduct, norms, social connections and mindsets of clients revolve. For social workers there is need to understand and appreciate how cultural traditions influence relationships with a diverse panorama of client needs and demands. This literature review seeks to create a foundation regarding the facts stated above through filtering and analysis of relevant and interesting research studies and works by previous authors. This review of literature focuses on how social workers develop or maintain cultural competence following graduation from Masters of Social Work Program. It aimed at providing answers for further research regarding how social workers maintain cultural competence post graduation. In addition, this literature review seeks to consider that social workers are not enhancing their cultural awareness post graduation as mandated by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) code of ethics.
Identify and explain the three major sources of conflict and misinterpretations in social work practice: culture-bound values, class bound values, and language variables.
In this paper, I will discuss my interview I conducted with a Hmong social worker. I will discuss the social worker background covering of her current employment, the length of employment, and position responsibilities. Addition, I will discuss the social worker prior work experience, challenges with the position and agency, and improvement as a social worker. Moreover, I will discuss the social worker experience of services with Hmong, Caucasian, and people of color clients. Lastly, I will conclude with the social worker recommendations to prepare me as a future social worker and correlate to my overall interview experience.
The data provides culturally competent guidelines for social workers. The social worker must understand and appreciate diversity among and within cultures. They should be aware of the history, culture, and contemporary realities. They also must have good skills in patience, listening, and tolerance of silence. A social worker needs to be aware of their own biases and need for wellness and display humility and a willingness to learn. They need to be respectful, nonjudgemental, and openminded. However, researchers must find a way to measure cultural competence with studies that examine beliefs and evaluate actions of social workers. It should include several cultural groups.This will be highly important in building a knowledge base. Doing these studies there can be a better plan to include cultural competence and serve clients from different backgrounds a lot better.
I have grown to appreciate diversity and I seek out opportunities that will increase my competency in this area. While working with diverse populations I have learned that diversity represents individual and human differences that impact how we problem-solve, work, and learn. Often times we sum diversity into three main categories, race, gender and ethnicity; however, diversity is expanding and we must include all aspects of diversity. There are several factors that distinguishes us and the dimensions of diversity may be hidden or visible. They may remain constant or fluctuate as life changes and they may not be easily defined. Social workers must embrace diversity as well as its dimensions and understand that diversity is multidimensional.
Cognitive objectives covered in this course focused on understanding life experiences of diverse populations across the world as well as being aware of our own prejudices and attitudes towards diverse populations. The objectives focused on understanding institutional racism in both present day societies as well as in the past and focused on understanding oppression and injustice in society that diverse populations face. Cognitive objectives focus on a set of theories that leads to our understanding of cultural diversity in America. Cognitive objectives recognize social workers task in combating oppression and injustice in society as well as learning and understanding cultural diversity and supporting and encouraging strategies for social change.
Springer, J. F, Sale, E, Kasim, R, Winter, W, Sambrano, Soldad, C, (2004). Sandra; Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work: Innovation in Theory, Research & Practice; Vol 13(3); 1-23. Doi: 10.1300/J051v13n03_01
In the National Association for Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics, there are many standards a social worker should uphold in order to promote a healthy and helpful relationship with the client. One such aptitude is Cultural Competence and Social Diversity, which is in section 1.05 of the NASW code of ethics (National Association of Social Workers, 2008). There are three sections associated with this competency “Social workers should understand culture and its function in human behavior and society, recognizing the strengths of all cultures”. It is assumed that “social workers should have a knowledge base of their clients’ cultures and be able to demonstrate competence in the provision of services that are sensitive to clients”. As a final point “Social workers should obtain education” in order to understand cultural diversity and oppression in people (NASW, 2008, p. 9).
As a social worker, the ability to merge cultural competencies with social work methods and theories allows intervention to be customized to meet their client’s need-based which vary upon culture. Since there are a massive amount of different cultures with different traditions, values, and beliefs the social worker needs to obtain the fundamentals of the culture in order to assess and advocate for the ethnic group effectively. The NASW of Ethics clearly values the competence and the Ethical Principle of Social workers practice within the areas of competence and enhances their professional expertise. In addition, “ Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system or agency or among professionals and enable the system, agency, or professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations” (NASW, 2000b, p. 61). Cultural competency ensures that our primary mission of the social work profession to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty.
A social worker must present themselves as a learner and understand clients from all experts of their own experiences. To show your respect to the clients as a social worker you must be able to show that you understand complexity of cultural identity. Cultural competence targets social workers knowledge of development, focusing on culturally specific demographics, characteristics, values, and intravenous technique. When dealing with cultural sensitivity a worker’s genuine appreciation of the client’s uniqueness and universalistic respect for the client’s humanness is needed. To have success in multicultural practice, cultural responsiveness come in to play, which means to be culturally responsive, social workers use dialogue skills that place the client’s construction of reality at the center of the
(Hays & Erford, 2014 p 59). In the counseling world in order to effectively work with clients from diverse background and cultures, it is important to provide a culturally safe environment and promote equality to all persons. Our main focus should be those that have already experienced discrimination due to their race/ethnicity, gender, age or economic status. Our efforts and “Beliefs that all people should have the right to equitable treatment and fair allocation of societal resources, the goal of social justice counseling is to establish an equal distribution of power and resources through advocacy to ensure that all people have the tools and resources for a “good life.” (Hays & Erford, 2014 p 59). The Multicultural and social justice counseling competencies (MSJCC) has implemented and created several competencies useful for the counseling profession. These competencies work as the foundation for something positive if properly implemented. It allows the counselor to address issues of power, privilege, and oppression and how each day the client is faced with a variety of worries that require the counselor to intervene and recommend the proper interventions needed in order for the client to move
In social work, a social worker has to come to the client’s level and start from there. The client does not have to come to the social workers level. In order for this to happen the social worker has to know the importance of culture, race, gender, sexual, diversity and other forms of diversity to make the best decision for choosing a type of intervention. Understanding the client’s culture, race, gender, sexual diversity and other form of diversity is important because they affect each person differently. An example, Roberto is Latino and in their culture they believe in machomism, so this is something his social worker needs to know when addressing Roberto or someone of the Latino culture. Hispanic women bring machomism
It is imperative that social workers become knowledgeable about their clients’ cultures and are culturally sensitive. In learning about their clients’ cultures, social workers need to be aware of how powerful and significant culture is in relating to clients’ behavior, values, and beliefs. Becoming culturally competent requires the ability to integrate awareness, knowledge, and skills while maintaining a positive working relationship with the client (Sue and Zane, 1987). Today, the concerns regarding cultural competency continue to accentuate the importance of preparing social workers for a diversified society.
The work of a social worker is complex and all encompassing. Social workers work in many capacities seeking justice, liberation, and equality. There work is global, as they work to put policies in place to govern practices. To keep up with societal shifts and generational changes there learning is continuous. As new questions rise so does the need for the continuation of research, not only to answer these questions but to implement into