160 likes | 700 Vues
Introduction to Cultural Diversity. Refujio Rodriguez From Cultural Diversity: A Primer for the Human Services by Jerry V. Diller (2010, Paperback). Why Culturally Different Clients Underutilize Mainstream Agencies.
E N D
Introduction to Cultural Diversity Refujio Rodriguez From Cultural Diversity: A Primer for the Human Services by Jerry V. Diller (2010, Paperback)
Why Culturally Different Clients Underutilize Mainstream Agencies • Mainstream agencies may inadvertently make clients feel uncomfortable or unwelcome. • Clients may not trust the motives or abilities of providers because of past experiences with the system. • Clients may believe that they will not be understood culturally or will not have their needs met in a helpful manner. • Clients may be unfamiliar with the kinds of services available or come from a culture in which services are conceived very differently.
What is Discrimination in This Context? It is BEING UNAWARE: • of one’s ownprejudices and how they may inadvertently be communicated to clients; • of differences in cultural style, interactive patterns, and values, and how these can lead to miscommunication; • that many of the theories taught during training are culture-bound; • of differences in cultural definitions of health and illness as well as the existence of traditional cultural healing methods; and • of the necessity of matching treatment modalities to the cultural style of clients or of adapting practices to the specific cultural needs of clients.
Baggage • Both clients and providers come to their interactions with baggage about the ethnicity of the other. • Clients may feel mistrust, anger, fear, suspicion, or deference. • Providers may respond with feelings of superiority, condescension, discomfort, fear, or inadequacy. • These reactions may be subtle or covered up, but they will be there. • Providers must not take them personally. • A good strategy is to acknowledge them and raise them as a topic for discussion.
Usefulness of Cultural Competence • With clients from different cultures • With clients who are different in other ways (besides culturally): • Class • Gender/gender identity • Age • Geography • Social and political leanings • Ableness/disability • Religion
Terminology Used in the Text • Cultural diversity—the array of differences that exist among groups of people with definable and unique cultural backgrounds. • Culturally different—used synonymously with cross-cultural or ethnic and implies that the client comes from a different culture than the provider; suggests no value judgment about the superiority of one culture over another. • Culture—a lens through which life is perceived; each culture, through language, values, personality and family patterns, worldview, sense of time and space, and rules of interaction, generates a phenomenologically different experience of reality. Thus, the same situation or event may be experienced and interpreted very differently depending on the cultural background of individual clients and providers.
Terminology, continued • Ethnic group— any distinguishable people whose members share a common culture and see themselves as separate and different from the majority culture; their observable differences frequently serve as a basis for discrimination and unequal treatment within the larger society. • Racial group or race—a biologically isolated, population with a distinctive genetic heritage. This biological concept does not mean the same thing as the concept commonly used to define group differences; that concept of race is scientifically invalid. • People of Color or Clients of Color—terms used to refer to non-White clients.
Terminology, concluded • Communities of Color— collectives of ethnic groups who share certain physical, cultural, language, or geographic origins/features; identified by the term or referent preferred by members of that group (e.g., African Americans, Latinos/as, Native Americans, and Asian Americans). • Whites—members of the dominant or majority group members whose origins are Northern European. • White ethnics—dominant or majority group members whose origins are not Northern European.
Examples of Problems, cont. • Many Latinos/as and Asians, as immigrants, face ongoing dilemmas regarding assimilation, bilingualism, and the destruction of traditional family roles and values. • Native Americans, as victims of colonization in their own land, have faced destruction of traditional ways and identities. • African Americans, as victims of slavery, have faced similar issues. • White ethnics find themselves suspended between two worlds—culturally different yet perceived, and often wishing to be perceived, as part of the majority.
Assessing Clients’ Demographic and Cultural Situations Ask about: • Place of birth • Number of generations in America • Family roles and structure • Language spoken at home • English fluency • Economic situation and status • Amount and type of education • Amount of acculturation • Traditions still practiced at home • Familiarity and comfort with Northern European lifestyle • Religious affiliation • Community and friendship patterns