Introduction 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, Social Workers shall develop an understanding of their own personal and cultural values and beliefs as a first step in appreciating the importance of multicultural identities in the lives of people…Cultural competence includes knowing and acknowledging how fears, ignorance, and the “isms” (racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, heterosexism, ageism, classism) have influenced their attitudes, beliefs, and feelings. (citation) Social Work is a profession that prides itself on the ability to cultivate positive relationships with people who may be very different from us. There may be differences in age, race, personality, gender, socioeconomic status, health, sexual orientation, rank, power, and privilege, as well as beliefs regarding religion and politics. The experience of these differences can cause a Social Worker to feel emotionally and cognitively disturbed. The ability to become aware of and consciously attend to these internal disturbances can positively affect the quality of relationship we are able to …show more content…
Social workers challenge social injustice. Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. The meaning of this value is to ensure that individuals going into the social work profession pursue change, most importantly with, on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals, and with groups of people. Additionally, this social work value forces social workers to constantly affect social change primarily focused upon issues of poverty, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice by creating activities that seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic
In this article, the author, Esther Urdang, shows the readers how self-awareness is a necessity in the field of social work. She notes that being more self-aware protects social workers from things such as inappropriate relationships, burnout and not following necessary ethics. Urdang explains how specific casework, similarities between the client and worker, mental disability, involvement in a client’s personal life and self-disclosure can aid in developing inappropriate relationships. Towards the end of her article, she further emphasizes how social work education should focus on helping students become more secure in themselves and their experiences so they know how this affects their work (Urdang, 2010).
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 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).
There are many definitions of the term cultural competence. Davidhizar et al, (1998) defines it as the process of developing awareness about one’s own thoughts, feelings and the environment without allowing influence from the background of others. Another definition of cultural competence is the ability to have adequate understanding and knowledge of client’s culture. Yet another definition describes it as the process of recognizing, accepting and respecting cultural differences. These definitions are universal and provide definitions of cultural competence in all dimensions of life. In the context of social work, cultural competence is defined as the ability of social workers to carry out their duties in a manner consistent with the expectations of cultural groups they serve. Goldberg (2000) asserts that cultural competence is not an ultimate goal that organizations should strive to achieve but rather it is a continuous process that should progressively grow over time. Experiences during practice should enable social workers to identify strengths and vulnerabilities that will enable them to develop into culturally competent professionals.
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 National Association of Social Workers, NASW, considers the following as its six most core values; service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. The value of service is considered to be a core value because offering help to those in need is a crucial goal for all of those looking to practice in the field of Social Work. These services can include, but are not limited to, addressing social problems, helping those in need, and volunteering their knowledge to those who cannot otherwise afford such help. Social Justice is also an important core value for a Social Worker to develop. As a Social Worker one will encounter many people from several different walks of life, no two cases will ever be exactly the same. Some of these walks of life can leave a client vulnerable, defenseless, exploited, oppressed, and troubled. Therefore it is important to learn what Social Justice is, and how to help people from falling victim to injustice. Dignity and Worth of the Person is one of the most important values that one should uphold. People who need the help of a Social Worker many, but not all, times feel powerless, embarrassed, and worthless because they feel as though they cannot control aspects of their life an...
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.
Cultural Competence is being able to engage in respectful and effective practice with diverse individuals, families, and communities, preserving their dignity and affirming their worth. A social worker should be aware of their clients’ cultural and environmental contexts, in order to know a client’s strengths, but cultural competence is never fully realized, achieved, or completed, but rather cultural competence is a lifelong process for social workers who will always encounter diverse clients and new situations in their practice. 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’ cultures. Social workers should obtain education
Social justice is a core value in the social work field. We define social justice as, “all citizens would possess equal fundamental rights, protection, opportunities, obligations and social benefits (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2015, p. 29). Unfortunately, we understand there are many members in today’s society that are not receiving social justice. Some may not want help and believe that s/he is able to do it on their own and then there are the individuals that we may not know about that could really use our help. Our jobs as social workers is to help those who need help no matter if they are rich, poor, disabled, white, Hispanic, it does not matter because everyone should be treated equally. As NASW states, “The original mission of social work had much to do with championing the rights of society’s most vulnerable members, from children to homeless people to the physically disabled” (NASW: National Association of Social Workers, 2015, para. 1).
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.
Since birth I’d been diagnosed with life-threatening asthma. It became a hinder to my life because it kept me from participating in sports and other outdoor activities in school. I was afraid to let others know what sickness I had because I thought since we were all from different ethnic groups they wouldn’t become my friend because of my sickness. This value became my weakness. This practice behavior I continue for the longest amongst majority diverse groups. Competency 2.1.4. explains how to engage in the social work practice engaging in diversity. This is what made me think deeper into majoring in social work practice. I slowly became aware of self- awareness and understood as a social worker I must shape my life experiences for myself and focus more on the patients. It’s okay to have opinions on certain things, but when it’s in a career that cares less about your values and more about the client’s values that’s the priority. Through it all, I was able to not worry what others think of me and care more of what I think when I became my
When they are in need we must do everything in our power to make a change. Sometimes this involve advocating for them to see a change in social problems. The definition of a social worker states that they are trained person that carries out work with the aim of alleviating conditions of those in need (12). This often calls the need for social justice. After learning about social workers throughout history, I realize there’s multiple ways to help those in need (11). They’ve been able to implement social welfare for the public.
Social work is a profession which promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and enhance well-being. It is important to acknowledge the history of social work and the purpose of social work and why it exists. Social work is a questioned theory with different perspectives on what it is and how it should be practised. Social work helps people to deal with personal and social problems so that people can overcome or adjust to any personal difficulties. Social work is a combination of social stability and social change. Social stability promotes individual and social welfare and social change seek to change negative aspects of society. Values are implicit within the law and policy and these tend to reflect the values within society. Personal values can influence the way social workers interpret and implement their profession.
The social work profession is defined as “a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people (ISFW, ‘Global Definition of Social Work’, 2016).” The definition may be true about the profession but it is more in depth than just that. To me, the profession’s primary focus is to help others through life as much as we can while letting them make their own choices and guiding them. In society, social workers are utilized in many different nonprofit and government roles. They serve the community in many different ways from monitoring parent visits to helping people through mental illnesses. Human beings are so complex and things that happen