Understanding Diversity to Optimize Patient Care

Our perceptions about diversity and multiculturalism are rooted in our cultural experiences. The article mentions an example of Allen who worked with Vietnam war survivors. The survivors were looking for government benefits instead of treatment. The problem with this is that is psychiatric's had not yet invented a diagnosis for PTSD. Allen knew there was a reasonable explination of their behavior. Veteran's were always nice and lgical until the war which made things more challenging. It was the veterans who came up with the the behaviors listed in the DSM. Recently members of the milatary suggested the term PTSR since it was because of the environment instead of themselves. However, the new name keeps veterns from getting the they need. The term should be PTS instead since it is something caused by the environment and is the resonse to tramatic situations. Part of effective treatment is to calm the clients. Political corretness is also another term used in a bad mannor to minimize any offence like racial, cultural, or other identity groups. We should use terms that the clients prefer. Since it is the client's point of view that actually counts in the issue of naming. We can help clients by exploring names and social identifiers in a more positive fasion. The reason for this is because different people feel differently about terms used to classify them and have different culures. Therefore we should increase our ability to respond appropriately to clients who differ from us. The American Counseling Association and the American Psychological Association developed a multicultural guidelines and specific competencies for practice. The multicultural competencies traditionally include awareness, knowledge, and skills. We need to be a...

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... to be more sensitive to diversity. We will make mistakes as we grow multiculturally but, we should look at these errors as an opportunity to grow further. However, people may learn new skills to help them they have st actually do these skills and apply the skills they learned to their lives. Awareness, knowledge, skills, and action are all essential to learning and mastering counceling. Traditional models of counseling and therapy treat counseling concerns and behavioral symptoms as indicators of underlying dysfunctional process. A strenth-based wellness model treats concerns and behaviors as responses to life challenges and builds on the clietnt's strengths and assets and leads to a more empathetic relationship in the counseling setting. If we help clients recognize their strentghs and surrounding resources we can expect them to use the awareness in positive ways.