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Communication issues in an intercultural setting
What does a social worker do when it comes to cultural competency
Communication issues in an intercultural setting
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Cultural competent goes beyond race and ethnicity but also addresses issues of gender, people with disabilities, the elderly and LGBT. As of 2013, people with disabilities have become the largest minority group in the United States. Social workers are required to ensure appropriate cultural sensitive care to persons with acquired disabilities. Such competencies include communicating with patients who have deficits in verbal communication, understanding the needs of persons with disabilities, and lately providing encouragement to the clients and their families. Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and transgender have also become a large minority group. As social workers we must treat every LGBT member as any other client. We must not treat them any differently because of their sexuality. We also have to advocate for our LGBT community because the lack of cultural competent provides significant barriers especially in health care and the workplace. …show more content…
Without the class I took on culturally competence I don’t believe I would be the sucessful social worker I am today. Now that I fully understand cultural competent when it comes to social work practice I am able to understand and interact with people whose cultural origins and values are different from my own. Cultural competence is very important in the helping profession especially in social work practice because social workers interact with a wide range of clients from different backgrounds. In order to accurately service those multicultural clients we must have an understanding of why they think or act a certain way. Overall when thinking about cultural competence we as people must remember that not everybody communicates the same, thinks the same, and has the same beliefs and values. So take some time out to get to know someone who is unlike
Cultural Competence is a substantiated body of knowledge based of cultural “values held by a particular cultural group and the ability to cohesively adapt to individualized skills that fit the cultural context, thus, increasing relationships between employees, managements, and stakeholders, including patience and research subjects. Cultural competency is critical to reducing disparities and improving access to high-quality services, respectful of and responsive to the needs of diverse working conditions and individualized characteristics. The main focus emphasizes the understanding of cultural competence provide internal resources with skills and perceptions to thoroughly comprehend ones cultural attitude, increase the ability to multicultural diversity, and the ability to effectively interact with other cultures (Shelley Taylor, 2006, pp. 382-383), which is absent within the case study of Joe and Jill. Essentially speaking, principles of cultural competence are acknowledgement to the importance of culture in people's lives, respect for cultural differences, an...
It is important to include cultural issues in the helping process to be more effective. We also need cultural competence because the U.S. is becoming more diverse. Therefore with diversity comes different beliefs, norms, and values. Eurocentric values dominate sciences and began cultural universals which puts the clash of dominate and non-dominate cultural behaviors in motion. In 1996 the NASW Code of Ethics increased the recognition of cultural competence. It is important to know diversity exist within ethnic and cultural groups because social workers need to know that relationships between helping professionals and clients may be strained. This happens because of the distrust between groups. Another important aspect is that the professional realizes their own values, biases, and beliefs. The reason for this is because they must value diversity to start with and understand the dynamics of difference. Culturally competent practitioners have to go through developmental process of using their own culture as a starting point to meet all behaviors. Striving for cultural competence is a long term process of development. The literature on cultural competence is theoretical and conceptual. They have not been evaluated in a systematic way. Roughly there are 2 million Native americans in the U.S. Which survive decimating disease, over-repressed in child welfare system, suffer from health problems, and are among the poorest people in the United States. Working with them clearly falls within the social work clearly mandate to serve vulnerable and oppressed clients. However, we do not know how many people from this group is actually receiving help from social workers. Even though it is important to train social workers to provide care in th...
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).
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.
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.
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
Cultural proficiency is seeing the difference and responding effectively in a variety of environments. Learning about organizational and individual culture, in which one can effectively interact in a variety of cultural environments (p. 3). In simple terms in which educators are not only able to effectively work with diverse populations, but also believe that diversity adds positive value to the educational enterprise (Landa, 2011, p. 12).
My first core value is autonomy and independence, and it is important to me because I want some freedom to decide how and when to do my job. Having autonomy will allow me to implement some of my own ideas into my work, which will increase my dedication toward the job. I also need to believe that I am the source of my actions, rather than a manager above me in order to be satisfied with my job. I have always been around and interacted with a diverse group of people throughout my education and in my community. Therefore, I want to collaborate with a diverse group of people in my workplace as well. I believe having people similar and different from me in my workplace would make me more comfortable and at ease with my job because I would be more
Firstly, cultural tensions in social work practice are multifaceted; social workers are always at the center of these tensions; social workers are positioned to be agents of cultural acculturation, so they must be critical to their own socio-organizational position. The second is that visible minority social workers encounter a very different type of cultural tension. They tend to walk an extra fine line between their personal and professional life domains due to their various cultural backgrounds. Lastly, cultural tensions require a high level of sensitivity of social workers to reflect on their own cultural
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.
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
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)
Culture is an aspect that inevitable to avoid in life and in all professions. Culture can be defined as “customs, habits, skills, technology, arts, values, ideology, science, and religious and political behavior of a group of people in a specific time period,” (Barker). According to Mattaini, Meyer, and Lowery, “the concept of culture is broad and made more adaptable, moving from the association primarily with ethnicity and race to systems and communities” (77). In relation to systems, culture is especially important in the Social Work system. It is dire for culture to be understood because it represents a major part of the lives of people. Culture can affect communication, perception, behavior (body language), protect, and is a bond which ties our people together. It is important for all people, especially social workers, to learn how to be culturally competent, which can be defined as the “possession of knowledge, values, and skills necessary to make services culturally relevant, thereby increasing their effectiveness” (Clark).
All Social Workers who assent to professional standards of ethnics are committed to working in a culturally appropriate manner within and across any relevant cultural groups. It is a concern that cultural competence might be reduced to a set of objective criteria of behaviors that can be scored, rather than as a continuous process of growth, relationship building, and active challenging of social
The social worker should always be aware of client’s cultural differences and use communication skills that will be respectful of