Essay On Cultural Competence

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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

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