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Culturally sensitive approaches in social work practice
Culturally sensitive approaches in social work practice
Culturally sensitive approaches in social work practice
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Social workers work with many different types of clients from different cultures and backgrounds. It is imperative they have the cultural competence and treat all clients equally. However, some beliefs held by the social professionals can prevent them from doing so. Some of these beliefs include the perception that they have no biases while doing their work. Many of these professionals work with clients that have a different cultural background from theirs and as a result, they influence their beliefs in the process. The only way in dealing this issue is by first accepting that some cultures practiced by the clients will make them uncomfortable. Therefore, the social professional to first learn how to respect and accommodate this differences in culture. According to (Garthway, 2017), when we encounter another culture and its consumptions of patterns and behavior, that is the time …show more content…
The social worker should be socially sensitive and respect the cultures of other people. For instance, some cultures believe that depression or sadness is a spiritual problem and may want to seek divine interventions from their religious leaders. As opposed to inventions social workers recommend, if the social workers fail to understand the belief of the clients then an ineffective intervention will be chosen. It imperative for the social worker to learn knowledge from these cultures for effective interventions. Third belief to barriers in social worker’s competence is the idea that clients’ needs to be cultural. According to (the National Association of Social Workers, 2015) a typical and gauge for social competence is language and communication. A client should not be bilingual to receive help from social workers. A social worker must provide effective communication by learning or referring to another social worker if the communication cannot be
Why is so important to possess cultural knowledge in the field of human service? Firstly, is my understanding based on the class discussion and the text book information, that as human service professionals, we must constantly maintain direct interactions with other human beings. Secondly, knowledge about the client’s culture may prevent so many misunderstandings and help a lot to bring the expected outcome within the timeframe. Let’s make it clear with one example. Several days ago during a class discussion about a cultural topic, one of the students comment in the class discussion that she belongs from Haitian culture and in their culture making eye contact while talking is considered disrespectful. On the other hand, in American culture while speaking, if someone does not make eye contact, leads to believe that the person speaking is lying. Thus, it is a significant contradiction between two cultures and may creating misunderstanding if individual does not aware about these culture. That is why having some basic knowledge about a client’s culture plays a vital role In the Human
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 social work profession, it is notably important that a practitioner be able recognize aspects of their decision making that may be motivated by uncontrollable circumstances such as past experiences, family values, and personal values. Uncontrollable circumstances, such as the examples listed above, all attribute to personal biases a practitioner may display when working with individuals, groups, families, or communities. A personal bias is the negative or positive perspective or demeanor, both knowingly and unknowingly, of any particular individual, or group of individuals, based on different diversity factors that may skew the way that an individual interacts or perceives an individual or group (Miller, Cahn, Anderson-Nathe, Cause, Bender, 2013). Therefore, as a social worker, the importance of practicing self-awareness is that it helps the practitioner to shuffle through personal biases, and in return, aid in social justice and be effectively responsive to diversity factors in the practice setting (Bender, Negi, Fowler, 2010).
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 in 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).
These professionals have to keep an open mind with the people they are working with and trying to help in order to have a positive influence on their lives. If they keep a closed and secure mind on those that are different from you, you will not be able to help them to your best ability. Also having a judge free zone helps to interact with clients in an effective way because it allows the client to feel comfortable and will be willing to receive the help that is to come. Race impacts the way that social workers because, “the client may experience this socially as isolation or psychologically as shame and alienation” (pg. 53), therefore, the professional must keep an open mind in helping others who are feeling this way. If they begin to look down on the clients based on their race or even begin to stereotype them, the client may see this as normal and that change is impossible. Social workers cannot discriminate, oppress, or be prejudiced toward their clients because they are there to get help and not to be criticized by someone who is there to help them. Social workers should also ignore the “stereotype of overly aggressive, cynical verbal behavior, commonly associated with many minorities” (pg. 53), since this is not allowing the client to feel like they have the power to change and get the help they need in order to succeed. All the problems and issues that come along with race have to be looked past when it comes to social workers and other human services, all of the clients should be treated equal no matter the tone of their skin or their facial
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.
It does not matter what nationality, place of residence, sex, ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status the person is, everyone should be treated equally (United Nations human rights office of the high commissioner [OHCHR], 1996). There is an international human rights law that protects human beings against the government and that limits the government’s power on their people. Human rights are protected by the law to protect people or groups against any type of discriminations. There are different organizations that promote and protect human rights. Social workers should also protect and fight for their clients’ human rights. It’s important for social workers to be knowledgeable about human rights so they can be able to advocate for their clients. Social workers should also teach their clients about human rights and how all human beings are entitled to their human rights. All human beings should be aware and knowledgeable about their human rights and social workers can be
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.
Professionalism in the social work field goes beyond licensure and expertise (Cournoyer, 2014). According to Cournoyer (2014), social work professionalism encompasses the concepts of integrity, self-efficacy and knowledge, self-understanding and self-control, and social support (Cournoyer, 2014). Embedded in social work professionalism is the person-environment perspective, which posits that our personal attributes, interactions and relationships with others, and environment influence a social worker’s practice. Cournoyer stresses that it is a social worker’s responsibility to acknowledge and regulate his or her personal biases, ideologies, and beliefs when working with clients in order to prevent them from negatively impacting the therapeutic
If the social worker can’t determine what the client’s physical behavior may determine, then it can be hard to communicate with the client especially if the social worker isn’t aware with the client’s cultural norms and behaviors. Some clients also prefer to be in group sessions instead of individual centered sessions, therefore the client may not feel comfortable speaking thoroughly. Class-bound values can impact communication with clients by the client not feeling motivated or have energy to communicate because of their home situations or how their transportation was difficult to get to the session. Clients may also not have time for insights, not giving the social worker detailed descriptions because they feel that there 's no need, can impact communication with a client. Language variables can also impact communication with clients by the client not feeling comfortable speaking because English can be their second language, or because the social worker isn’t bilingual therefore it 's hard to translate some words if the client doesn’t know how to say them in English. Since the U.S culture does not appreciate Ebonics, it may be hard for a African American to speak with the social worker. And since there’s a lack of bilingual social workers, this
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
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.
Globalisation is a broad term that is often defined in economic factors alone. The Dictionary at merriam-webster.com describes globalisation as “the process of enabling financial markets to operate internationally, largely as a result of deregulation and improved communication.” Also due to deregulation on the financial market, multi-national companies are free to trade and move their businesses to areas where a higher return or profit can be achieved. New technology also enables companies to relocate to areas where labour costs are lower, for instance movement of call centre jobs from the UK to India.
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
Standard 2: Self-Awareness of the NASW Standards for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice explains the importance of self-awareness in Social Work practice in. It reads,