Every person has grown up with a slightly different culture and experience due to differences in social location. As social workers, although we may try to convince others and ourselves that we are able to objectively look beyond differences, we are all human who also differ in our experiences. This is why it is important to be able to recognize and embrace differences in culture so that we can effectively help our participants, who are often people who face oppression and marginalization. As such, this paper will explain my knowledge and experiences with a group who has faced the aforementioned adversities and how I intend to be culturally competent when working with this group. The population I have chosen to discuss in this paper is Indigenous …show more content…
This is important to understand when looking at Indigenous women, as culture encompasses both ethnicity as well as gender (Bogo, 2006, p. 35). I have some cultural competency for women, seeing as I am a woman, and although I have a relatively little understanding of an Aboriginal woman’s culture at this point, it is important that I acknowledge that for all persons, including Indigenous women, no one’s culture is congruent for every single member of the group. Therefor, in order to gain cultural competency in a way that does not assume a universal experience, Bogo (2006) suggests the importance of taking a stance of naïveté so that the participant can tell the worker about their own culture (p. 38). This will also help to develop a non-judgmental stance, if one comes into their practice without assumptions. In his article, Michael Anthony Hart discusses the importance of having a non-judgmental stance in Aboriginal culture, as he says it “limit[s] a person’s self determination” (1999, p. 99). It is also important to keep current with one’s cultural competency of a population, as both the culture and practices surrounding culture may change over time. For example, it was once believed that there were only four major groups of culture (including Native American), and that each group was believed to make characteristics of the client, rather than just a portion of the client’s identity (Bogo, 2006, p. 36). Hart (1999) agrees that in an Aboriginal approach to social work, acknowledging culture’s effect on shaping a population, such as that of residential schools, is important (p.
Firstly, gender disparity plays a significant role in aboriginal health, especially in the administration of health care. In Aboriginal culture, there are certain health practices that can only be done by either men or women, but not all (Bonvillain, 2001). In most cases, women are treated by their female counterparts whereas male doctors handle male patients. This means that a male doctor cannot undertake a vaginal inspection and a female nurse cannot teach an aboriginal man about self-catheterization. As a result, a breach of this traditional gender division, for instance a male doctor helping a woman in emergencies, is likely to cause shame, distress, depression, and fear of breaking a particular taboo (Freud, 2000).
As a service provider, I ask myself “How can I reduce barriers for Indigenous clients and deliver services following cultural competency/safety/sensitivity?”. By applying “we are all Treaty people” to my work could be a way to equal the power balance between service user and service provider. For instance, Garret said that if he could, he would want to have a one-on-one dialogue with each of us to ask why we want to be social workers. I think this emphasizes how important it is to build a relationship on trust with Indigenous clients. In a past class presentation, I have heard something similar from an Indigenous elder who said asking “Where are you from?” is normal and important to building a relationship especially because of how service providers often ask intrusive
The Canadian and American governments designed a residential school system to assimilate Indigenous children into Western society by stripping them of their language, cultural practices as well as their traditions. By breaking these children’s ties to their families and communities, as well as forcing them to assimilate into Western society; residential schools were a root cause of many social problems, which even persist within Aboriginal communities today.
Cultural Competency is fundamentally linked with the principles of social justice and human rights because it provides the nurses with the opportunity to develop interpersonal skills to provide equal care despite one’s cultural background. However, using the principles of social justice and human rights to educate nurses allows them to learn how to negotiate cultural differences. Removing their own cultural filters, and seeing events through the eyes of those who are culturally different accomplish this. An embedded experience, in which nurses interact with various cultures, would encourage them to adopt Cultural Competency knowledge (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2008).
In today’s society were an abundance of resources exist, social workers are often the entry point for people to access services. Therefore, it is imperative for social work professionals to have a clear understanding of themselves in relation to the client from a cultural perspective. While the social work profession has always focused on social justice and oppression it wasn’t until the civil rights movement that there was a conscious shift in the social work pedagogy to focus the social service practice on race, racism, and training the workforce in cultural competences. Later in the mid 1980’s, the tone of cultural competence would shift from race and racism to a more inclusive language, which includes a more robust list of all types of
The over-representation of Aboriginal children in the Canadian Child Welfare system is a growing and multifaceted issue rooted in a pervasive history of racism and colonization in Canada. Residential schools were established with the intent to force assimilation of Aboriginal people in Canada into European-Canadian society (Reimer, 2010, p. 22). Many Aboriginal children’s lives have been changed adversely by the development of residential schools, even for those who did not attend them. It is estimated that Aboriginal children “are 6-8 times more likely to be placed in foster care than non-Aboriginal children (Saskatchewan Child Welfare Review Panel, 2010, p. 2).” Reports have also indicated that First Nations registered Indian children make up the largest proportion of Aboriginal children entering child welfare care across Canada (Saskatchewan Child Welfare Review Panel, p. 2). Consequently, this has negatively impacted Aboriginal communities experience of and relationship with child welfare services across the country. It is visible that the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system in Canada lies in the impact of the Canadian policy for Indian residential schools, which will be described throughout this paper.
Understanding culture is an important aspect of being a social worker; this does not mean learning common cultural traits is of great significance to the social work profession. “Consider the second-generation Japanese-American social worker whose practice consists of Mexican-American and African-American families. Memorizing national traits or cultural rituals would be interesting and informative, but ultimately these would be an inaccurate basis on which to “know” these particular families” (Dorfman, 1996, p. 33). When understanding cultural competence it is important to learn from the client about their culture in order to serve them in the most helpful and efficient way possible. There is a major drawback to memorizing information, and that is this information will not give you a real understanding of whom your client is and what life...
Waller, M., (2006). Strengths of Indigenous Peoples. In D. Saleebey (Eds.), The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice Forth Edition (pp 148-170). Boston. Pearson Publishing.
Cultural awareness doesn’t come naturally and without effort; if it did, everyone would automatically be culturally aware. It takes practice to become competent at cultural awareness, and competence takes practice. We must constantly strive as social workers to “walk the walk.” We should continue to learn more and actively be culturally aware in our lives, both during and outside of work.
Being culturally aware is important for anybody, not just social workers. In our upcoming careers, working with clients it will be helpful for us to have knowledge of different cultures. Many times throughout the text, it speaks of Native American cultures and Western descent. These group cultures are ones I identify with throughout the text. In this small area working with these cultures are very possible. So having good knowledge of how to work through Trauma with this population was something I paid attention more too.
The goal of the social work relationship is to address the racial discrimination that the client has experienced. However, I believe that it is the duty of social workers to practice principles of social justice and anti-oppressive work, whenever faced with issues of oppression (Sakamoto, 2005). Therefore, using an anti-oppressive approach requires that the social service providers and organizations that discriminated against the client, be told the errors of their discriminatory ways, and how to properly and fairly allocate resources and services to clients. Therefore, this approach is deeply entrenched in principles of social justice, and inclusiveness, as this approach allows for the client to heal, and also for oppression within social service organizations to be
Part A: Briefly introduce yourself, focussing in particular on your cultural identity. How might your cultural identity inform your professional identity and practice as a social worker?
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
Recognizing the influence of culture is an important aspect for social workers when working with diverse populations. The client is a 30-year-old single African-American (AA) single woman with a child. Culture identifies a set of values and beliefs in a community and its corresponding worldview. As the AA culture has been forced to assimilate into the dominant culture, their own culture has been slowly forgotten. The client has deep roots to her ancestors and has mainstreamed into a new dimension. The client is reconnecting with her Baptist faith as she has lost the support from spiritual leaders. “African-Americans have developed abilities and coping mechanisms to deal with racism, and they rely on their social systems that have been perfected over the generations” (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2009, p. 187). The client represents a very diverse cultural group and the intersection of social class and gender which contributes to her oppression. The client is a single AA female with a son, living in poverty, lack of education, unemployed, with a felony charge, and receiving cash assistance from the state to support her son.
Don’t know how – Health professionals expressed concerned about not knowing how to work with Aboriginal clients and communities. This included not knowing where to start and having difficulty implementing associated strategies to do so (Rural and Remote Health, 2015).