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Importance of social work in the community
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Strengths and weaknesses of cultural competence
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I thoroughly enjoyed your post. I loved how you incorporated the three major dimensions of culturally competent practice along with the three major levels of the ecological-systems perspectives. I believe these levels of practice fit well together and they allow service provider’s guidelines or a comprehensive map to follow. I also agree that this could help provide social workers with a simple yet comprehensive outline that includes identified problems/barriers, interventions to address these, and attainable goals that increase the potential for Juanita, her family, and the community in which they live a better chance at a successful outcome. Social work and social workers have long been concerned with families. Historically, most approaches
to social work with families have focused on individual pathology and problem solving or have considered problems of a family member to be symptoms of family dysfunction (Early, & GlenMaye, 2000). The ecological approach works better for the individual and their families, versus the individual pathology because this way of practice more so pointed the finger and blamed either the individual or the individual’s family as the cause for dysfunction. This new approach helps build and empower the individual along with their family and works more on their strengths for a successful outcome and identifies the barriers to work on rather than simply pointing the finger.
Cobb, Torry Grantham, DHSc, MPH,M.H.S., P.A.-C. (2010). STRATEGIES FOR PROVIDING CULTURAL COMPETENT HEALTH CARE FOR HMONG AMERICANS. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 17(3), 79-83. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp-01.lirn.net/docview/750318474?accountid=158556
The absence of cultural competency in some health care providers, lack of community perspective integration in health care facilities, and low quality health care received by women in developing countries.These are the three most pressing health care concerns that need to be addressed in our ever changing world. The first of the issues I’ll be discussing is the lack of cultural competency amongst health care providers, as well as the shortage of education and training in cultural competency. As we all know and see the United States is a racially and ethnically diverse nation which means our health care providers need to be equipped with the necessary education and training to be able to provide for diverse populations. As an East African
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.
Working as a research nurse at the Ohio State University, I often encounter patients that
The United States’ population is currently rising exponentially and with growth comes demographic shifts. Some of the demographics shifts include the population growth of Hispanics, increase in senior citizens especially minority elderly, increase in number of residents who do not speak English, increase in foreign-born residents, population trends of people from different sexual orientation, and trends of people with disabilities (Perez & Luquis, 2009). As a public health practitioner, the only way to effectively eliminate health disparities among Americans, one must explore and embrace the demographic shifts of the United States population because differences exist among ethnic groups (Perez, 2009). We must be cognizant of the adverse health conditions for each population and the types of socioeconomic factors that affect them. Culture helps shape an individual’s health related beliefs, values, and behaviors. It is more than ethnicity and race; culture involves economic, political, religious, psychological, and biological aspects (Kleinman & Benson, 2006). All of these conditions take on an emotional tone and moral meaning for participants (Kleinman & Benson, 2006). As a health professional, it is one’s duty to have adequate knowledge and awareness of various cultures to effectively promote health behavior change. Cultural and linguistic competencies through cultural humility are two important aspects of working in the field of public health. Cultural competency is having a sense of understanding and respect for different cultural groups, while linguistic competency is the complete awareness of the language barriers that impact the health of individuals. These concepts are used to then work effectively work with various pop...
A therapist will face problems, issues and client troubles everyday. The professional must understand how their client relates to the world around them. These feelings and ideas affect how the client sees the problem and how they respond to their situation. Their actions, in turn, have bearing on individual thoughts, needs, and emotions. The therapist must be aware of the client's history, values, and culture in order to provide effective therapy. This paper will outline and provide information as to the importance of cultural competence and diversity in family therapy.
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.
The Sanchez family are riddled with a unique set of problems for a social worker to intervene and provide assistance. Being a family that immigrated to the United States, they are managing many problems within the family that is ranging from disability, substance abuse, and immigration. This paper is a case analysis of each particular family member in the Sanchez family. Each family member will be analyzed and issues will be prioritized. Also, an intervention or a clinical resolution will be introduced to the best of the writer’s knowledge. Lastly, this writer will reflect on herself to determine her level of empathy and sympathy towards each family in the Sanchez family. Each family member is presenting individual problems and indicators that there is an underlying issue that needs intervention.
Cultural competence has to do with one’s culture. Culture affects among other factors, how children are raised, how families communicate, what is considered normal or abnormal, ways of coping with issues, the way we dress, when and where we seek medical treatment, and so forth. I should know because I come from a very cultural home where it is considered bad to talk to a male doctor about anything gynecological.
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.
Her culture is very important to her and I respect that. As a social worker, I have an obligation to, regardless of Mrs. Sanchez, ensure she has the resources she needs to provide for her family. As a social worker, I respect the decisions of the Sanchez family, after all they have the right to make their own choices when it comes to services. As suggested by Deci and Ryan (2012), all humans have a desire to be competent and have a sense of control over their situation.
Culturally competent care is care that respects diversity in the patient population, and cultural factors that affect health and health care, such as language, communication styles, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs. The national CLAS Standards provide the blueprint to implement such appropriate services to improve health care in the United States. The standards cover many areas, such as leadership, workforce, governance; communication and language assistance; organizational engagement, continuous improvement, and accountability. (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2014).
Cultural competence is a skill essential to acquire for healthcare providers, especially nurses. Cooperating effectively and understanding individuals with different backgrounds and traditions enhances the quality of health care provided by hospitals and other medical facilities. One of the many cultures that nurses and other health care providers encounter is the American Indian or Native American culture. There are hundreds of different American Indian Tribes, but their beliefs and values only differ slightly. The culture itself embodies nature. To American Indians, “The Earth is considered to be a living organism- the body of a higher individual, with a will and desire to be well. The Earth is periodically healthy and less healthy, just as human beings are” (Spector, 2009, p. 208). This is why their way of healing and symbolic items are holistic and from nature.
This is why social workers must also be critical thinkers. Critical thinking applied to the social work profession involves “the ability to define an issue, stressor, or problem; to distinguish, appraise, and integrate multiple sources of knowledge to formulate a tentative practice direction” (Gitterman & Knight, 2013). Theories, as well as research, “about phases of individual, family and group development; about ethical, racial, religious, spiritual, and sexual identity development; and about individual, family, and group development” provide social workers with a basic starting point for a more complex and situational-based intervention plan that will later be developed. In social work practice, intervention plans and assessments are not blindly developed, but rather based off theory and research. Therefore, although social work is a profession of artistry and creativity; it is also a scientific profession enhanced by the use of theory and
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