Multicultural Advocacy

Multicultural education and social advocacy among human service professionals have gained momentum in the United States over the past several decades due to an increase of diverse populations across race, nationalities, age, and socioeconomic status. Statistics demonstrate significant changes within the counseling profession as shifting its focus and strategies to attend to counselor and client cultural differences. The U.S. population at nearly 313 million is expected to increase by the year 2050 to 438 million individuals with a notable decrease in percentages of Whites, non-Hispanic, non-Latino, steady proportion of Black African origin, and increases for Hispanic, Latino, and Asian descent residents. Cultural competence is marked by counselors’

ability to work for all practical purposes with diverse groups of individuals singularly and collectively in a manner that is sensitive to their condition or situation and that acknowledges their different life experiences. Multicultural competencies and social justice together stretch beyond sensitivity and open-mindedness rather human services, and mental health professionals need to scrutinize adverse social conditions and other unfavorable conditions that lead to oppression. Legal and ethical issues are examined and discussed to determine the degree of influence advocacy, and social justice has on diverse populations, including individual social and human service professionals. This paper evaluates the strategies and strengths of multicultural education, social advocacy counseling, and mental health care based on a Christian worldview.

Multicultural Competencies and Social Justice
Social injustice can have a devastating and crippling effect on persons, both physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Injustice carries with it the potential to trigger life events that negatively affect individuals’ health, lifestyle, and relationships with family members, friends, and the workplace (Hays & Erford, 2014). Currently, in the United States, there are many and more individuals and groups who struggle to overcome past and present prejudices in the areas of housing, education, differential treatment, discrimination, child exploitation, and racial profiling. Barrett (2011) found that multidimensional issues associated with the biological, psychological, and societal differences among persons, social justice, and fundamental human rights many times prevent practitioners from supplying adequate services to all the peoples of a town, area, or country. The complexities of national, state and public administration have generated institutional inequity that is so entrenched within communities that “professional standards and documents and United Nations Conventions and Declarations are not enough” (Barrett, 2011, p. 5). To understand and apply the construct of multicultural counseling and social justice as interdependent and interactive forces practitioners and researchers should analyze and fine-tune traditional counseling theories and methodologies using a systems approach.
Legal and ethical issues influence social justice among diverse populations. According to Katiuzhinsky (2014), practitioners influenced by professional values and ethics, can take on the roles of mentor and supporter and push for enhancing the rights of individuals. Social work and counseling professionals strive to throw light on discrimination and to put an end to human rights violations. Bradley, Werth, James, Hastings, and Pierce (2012) posit that the idea of social justice tests current structures and “when paired with the human rights paradigm can significantly impact competent and ethical service delivery and practice” (p.3). The concept of social advocacy and mental health practitioners’ promotion of social justice has received sufficiently urgent attention over time. Previous and ongoing research has shown that there is a genuine need for multiculturally competent counselors within the field of human services to aid individuals from all walks of life affected by social injustice, however, the decision to participate or become involved in social justice events varies across mental health providers (Bradley et al., 2012). Individual issues might arise that psychologists need to examine before engaging in social advocacy activities mainly those involving publically controversial subject matter.
Bradley et al. (2012) examined and evaluated the experiences of mental health practitioners residing in rural areas, and the factors that impact whether those therapists become involved in social justice advocacy. Grounded theory approach a systematic research method by Fassinger, Strauss, and Corbin (as cited in Bradley et al., 2012) was employed to analyze eight interviews with mental health providers in two U.S. states on how they move through the problems within their rural communities located between New England and the South. The members were recruited to participate using purposeful sampling contingent upon two factors the first being Masters or Doctoral level practitioners in the field of psychology, including counselors and social workers who provide direct services to clients. The second stipulation was that the practitioner had to reside in the same rural or culturally diverse community as he or she was employed. Bradley et al. noted that all eight of the professionals reported that they move through the problems within their rural communities first by being mindful of client advocacy confidentiality laws. Secondly, practitioners must look at how their characteristics influence their thoughts and vigorous advocating for the welfare of others. Thirdly, it is important to set boundaries and assess the potential impact that their actions have on the past, present, and future clients. Fourthly, practitioners might donate monies appropriately in the welfare of others less fortunate in place of supplying office literature items. Fifthly, and lastly, they must be mindful of their personal political views that might affect future advocacy, family time, keeping track of the amount of time and finances they spend in the support process, and determining whether or not the client should appropriately just advocate for him or herself, to name a few. Thus, the authors found that their qualitative research study does endorse the idea that shortages of psychologists, counselors, and social workers, limited-time, high visibility, preserving positive community relations, and the differences of opinion often present problematic for rural practitioners who want to be involved in social advocacy efforts.
Barrett (2011) found that the concept of social justice coupled with a human rights model can usher a robust agenda for protecting fundamental human rights together with competent and ethical service delivery. The author pulled together a stream of information and documentation relating to diversity, social justice, and human rights via her participation in an academic course on human rights and social justice at the Multicultural Social Justice Leadership Development Academy (MSJLDA). MSJLDA action strategies address the multidimensional issues and the complexities of national, state and public administration relevant to the biological, psychological, and societal differences among persons (Barrett, 2011). The writer suggested that the formation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), counseling and social work models, and standards of professional conduct together roll out the groundwork and aid persons in their understanding of the complexities of national, state and public administration and widespread discrimination. The researcher presented a comprehensive overview of the ways social and human service practitioners can implement professional principles and empowerment-based solutions to safeguard and back all individuals’ right to freedom. Forming relationships with local, state, and national legislation representatives and advocating to include empowerment-based solutions might give voice and a sense of democracy to diverse populations and create a broader awareness of “the multicultural and social justice competencies within local organizations” (Barrett, 2011, p. 5). Instituting practical information and subject matter into school’s curriculum and promoting dialogue between students, parents, and school staff that is educative, specifying clearly cultural differences, showing how discrimination often leads to unjust disciplining of children of color, can aid parents and students themselves in becoming social justice advocates in academic surroundings.
In the educational arena Gordon (2013) found that political correctness has limited or restricted and misrepresented traditional education in America in exchange for the expansion of new studies on gender, race, and ethnicity. Research indicated that vast changes in college curriculums throughout the nation threaten to reduce studies on American history in liberal arts education significantly. Gordon further posits that increased numbers of college students will graduate without ever having to take even one history lesson. The author noted that there is a plethora of information associated with the ideas and principles of Western civilization, the Enlightenment, the significance of fundamental rights in America, cultural traditions among the American public, and the government politics behind the hiring of higher education faculty “devoted to regions outside of the traditional American concentration on itself and Europe” (p. 1). For example, academic topics on Western civilization and the Enlightenment have come to be regarded with contempt, and replaced by an “expansion of cultural and women’s studies including women’s and gender history” (Gordon, 2013, p. 2). Various research studies have shown that today changes in college programs of study threaten the rank of history in general studies geared to give persons knowledge in the arts, humanity, and the natural and social sciences in general, to name just a few. For instance, according to Gordon, some or more historians prefer to think of themselves as activists who have joined forces with other groups of persons in the advocacy of social change, rather than purely scholars in which a considerable number are at best.
Hardcastle, Powers, and Wenocur (2014) found that community organizations and social workers need to know and understand the intended meaning that goes beyond the political sphere, a community practice that aids individuals and groups in dealing with the forces or elements of society that have shaped behaviors and increased or restricted educational and skills training opportunities for individuals. The authors have noted an avalanche of information from printed publications, the internet, and scholarly journals and provided a comprehensive overview of the needs of the community and the theory and skills core to all aspects of social work. According to Hardcastle et al. the 1960s and 1970s ushered a series of extreme changes in the social work practice domain and threw a light on federal government services interaction with no harmonious adjustments and since the 1980s “federal, state, and local human services policies moved toward reduction, competiveness, divestiture, and privatization of public programs” (Hardcastle et al., 2014, p. 8). The researchers found that social workers set out to add to human well-being while meeting basic human needs including empowerment of persons living in poverty, and who are oppressed and deemed weaker than the system. For instance, the defining characteristics of social work is to lift up and push forward the quality of environmental organizations and other type social entities that cater to the needs and social issues of clients and persons in general (Hardcastle, et al., 2014). For example, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) code of ethics comprises a set of ethical standards in which social workers are bound to helping persons in need, speak to social problems, and set out to steadfastly fortify relationships among persons, bring back and preserve the overall “well-being of all persons, families, social groups, organizations, and communities” (NASW, as cited in Hardcastle et al., 2014, p. 10). In sum, highlighted are the connections between theoretical orientations and practical skills together with a headline on the political action of social service and community practice.
Hays and Erford (2014) pointed out the significance of multicultural counseling competence among social and human services professionals and the diverse populations of clients that they serve on a daily and or continual basis.

For instance, the writers suggested that developing multicultural counseling competence demands a systems approach to working with persons from diverse backgrounds. The authors posit that altogether improved practice concerning social justice and advocacy requires knowledge awareness surrounding the attitudes and skills practitioners need in self-reflection, identifying, and overcoming biases, in which individual, family, community, and historical systems connect that constitute cultural identities. For example, theory, values, actual application of principles and practice, and research pilot one another to reinforce the notions about what multiculturally competent counselors are made up of and what makes for culturally appropriate treatment (Hays & Erford, 2014). The researchers noted two key issues going forward in multicultural counseling. The one being disputes about what multicultural is or constitutes among research studies. And the second being a set of systems problem issues in research design as the quality of being factually sound and excessive dependence on cross-racial research involving comparisons between two or more cultures or cultural groups in to which the authors refer to in their book as primarily descriptive. As multicultural and social justice advocacy counselors contemplate the sample of research topics and common plan of action for greater culturally suitable research and collective inquiry by which researchers and persons or groups join forces to verify and boost the logically sound findings, it becomes more supportive and indispensable (Hays & Erford). Having a shared understanding of these factors that are nonbiased and based on empirical research allow counselors to engage more advanced competencies for the

application of social justice advocacy and multicultural counseling in the workplace and in general.