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Strength in diversity
How culture influences health
The importance of cultural differences
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According to NASW PRESS (2015), person-in-environment perspective (PIE) is “a biopsychosocial system that had added the elements of environment and strengths to the assessment process.” Based on the strengths of PIE, the social worker would assess clients who function in their social roles. Not only evaluating at mental and physical health problems, but also problems in the community that affect client’s ability to a productive life. Relating to Lia, person-in-environment perspective works themselves out of the lives of Lia and her family due to lack of cultural competence, therefore, cultural collision emerged. In the assessment, not only Lia’s illness should be evaluated, but also her status as a minor and unprivileged minority. Problems
...idual human service needs would ideally involve not only cognitive, behavioral, and emotional approaches, but familial and cultural too. The potential for therapeutic success rests on the extent of effectiveness in all of these areas as the practitioner takes a holistic approach to Santana within the contexts of his external and internal environments.
The person-in-environment approach views a client’s problems by how they react to the environmental contexts within their environment and how they occur. According to Gordon and Richmond, it has been stated that the person-in-environment approach is the “cornerstone” of social work practice. (as cited in Rogers, 2016, p.24). A clients’ systems are the interrelated aspects of a clients’ lives where all parts come together to function. Social workers utilize and focus on a clients’ systems when applying the person-in-environment. A clients’ system is anything that they interact with and hold roles in their lives. These systems can be on a micro level which is the individual and their biology, personality, and genetics. The individuals’ mezzo level would include their immediate environment, family, school, friends, or work. A macro level would include the larger social aspects of a clients’ life such as government policies, discrimination, oppression, or social class. Social workers incorporate these interactions and how they impact clients’ and their presenting problems. This theory and approach are beneficial as it allows a social worker to find out what resources are available to the client during their time with the worker (Rodgers,
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.
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).
It is generally accepted within healthcare that to understand mental health we must adopt the biopsychosocial model. This model assumes that an interdependent relationship exists between biological, psychological and social factors which are involved in all aspects of mental health (Toates, 2010, p. 14). To be true to the model research must be holistic and not investigate the factors in isolation.
The model of addiction etiology that best describes why people get addicted and how best to help them is biopsychosocial model. The biopsychosocial model, first developed by cardiologist Dr. George Engel, is today widely accepted by the mental health professions. The biopsychosocial model describes addiction as a brain illness that causes personality and social problems. The biopsychosocial model lets us to make solid and accurate differences between substance use, abuse, and dependence. It also allows the signs of addiction to be recognized and structured into progressive stages.
The first framework that would be beneficial when working with this population is the Dual Perspective Framework. The Dual Perspective Framework is a model that charges the social worker with assessing and understanding the client’s world. While doing so, one must take into account the client’s relationship to not only their immediate family and community, but also to the larger societal system while considering and comparing values, attitudes, and behaviors (Prigoff, 2003, p. 80). Another way to explain the Dual Perspective was presented by Dr. Nimmagadda as part of the diversity section of this course (2015). The contrasting views are also known as the “Nurturing Environment” versus the “Sustaining Environment.” The “Nurturing Environment” can be identified as the individual’s family or immediate extended family, while the “Sustaining Environment” can be identified as how an individual feels other’s view them in the social environment (Nimmagadda, 2015). An individual can evolve and change according to their experiences and interactions in both environments.
Let’s call this person Jake, a young man in his late 20’s, still in search for life’s plan. Jake lives in a quiet one bedroom apartment with no view. He has no girlfriend, but repeatedly tells everyone how much woman love and want him. He constantly belies he needs to help and guide people. One minute Jake is happy-go-lucky, and the next he is a belligerent, crazy maniac. Jake has resorted to drugs, alcohol and being alone, playing video games. Jakes problems do not end there, and because of his unorthodox behavior, has set himself back in life, because of a terrible accident five years ago. Jake was with his friends one night, drinking and doing drugs, a routine in Jakes life. Later that night, Jake went to the basement, but to get into the basement you would have to go
This is evident through rapport building with Mrs. Browning and engagement whilst conducting an assessment through the use of interpersonal skills and practice approaches which allows us to create an intervention plan. The first meeting with Mrs.Browning will consist of managing an assessment in which Holosko and Dulmus (2013) state, ‘it’s a process where common areas including current medical problems and history are addressed, assessment of the ability to perform basic activities of daily living and their emotional problem and also the social and economic issues, ‘Holosko and Dulmus 2013, p.179). Mrs Browning’s assessment will direct toward a needs-base as Cleak (2009) states,’ it gathers and presents the level of need or risk to the individual’, (Cleak 2009, p.27). The process of assessment will allow the social worker to understand the current situation and needs/risks that Mrs. Browning is dealing with and to identify the relevant factors that need to be covered. Firstly, Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs will be taken into assessment, as before higher needs can be met basic needs are required to be
The core values of the clinic are listed as client-centered care, cultural inclusion, and harm reduction. Client-centered care is as it sounds – centered on the client. The staff strives to treat, educate and empower their clients in a language that they are comfortable with and that is safe and non-threatening. This clinic cares for many unique individuals from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Cultural inclusion focuses on actively learning about different cultures and beliefs and the acceptance and validity of the dif...
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
The Biological approach to personality places emphasis on the genetic influences related to the development of an individual’s personality. Some may believe that children and their parents can have very similar personalities, for example a young boy having his father’s anger (Stelmack, 1990). Though this approach has often been questioned by psychologists, it is not disregarded all together. Some believe that genetics do have a role in an individual’s personality development; however environments, as well as personal experiences all work in forming personality.
Because of this idea, as a future social worker, it provides an explanation of why clients act a certain way because of their environment. For instance, a mother could decide to be a sex worker because she needs to find a way to feed her children. However, social workers must then find her other resources, in order to “enhance human well-being and help meet the basic needs of all people” (NASW Code of Ethics). This idea of looking at a client’s environment is also mentioned in a scholarly British article, written by David Green and Fiona McDermott (2011) that state that "[p]erson-in-environment begins from a position that recognises the interdependence of phenomena in affecting, changing and sustaining human life. Such phenomena are conceptualised as if they occur and operate on different ‘levels’—micro, meso, macro—in attempts to categorise and account for the complexity within which social and human life exists and to which social and human life contributes" (p. 2416-2417). Both authors provide an explanation of how factors can play in clients’ lives and consequently effect everything
When a nurse comes in contact with a patient that is from a different culture the nurse needs to perform a culturally diverse assessment. This is a methodical technique that results in an accumulation of data that will provide the nurse with an improved perception of what the patient thinks is important, any health problems the patient is experiencing, and the best course of action for the nurse to take to handle these
Therefore, the theories I used in my work with the clients were psychosocial, ecologically-oriented, competence-centered and completely client-centred (Mullaly, 2007, p. 48). My practice at SEWA was aimed at studying and addressing the correlation between clients and their “impinging” environment as a cumulative to the problem in question (Maluccio et. al., 1992, p. 31). For example, in addressing maternal health issues of a rural pregnant woman, as a social worker I would probe her existing knowledge and access to health. Thereafter, I would provide her information about services in the vicinity. In the process, I would also recognise case-relevant factors such as husband’s decision making power and help her address it by providing awareness to husband. In this manner, my role as a social worker was to identify and deal with social issues as a collective of individual and environmental problems. However, SEWA was a revolutionary movement and therefore as social workers we were encouraged to address such grassroots issues as system issues from feminist and anti-oppressive viewpoints. As a result, I was also responsible to collate and present these experiences at policy advocacy forums. Besides, defence, collectivization and personal change practices (Olivier, 2010) were also practised at