Culture and Cultural Competency - Essay Example

Culture and cultural competency are important factors that need to be considered by social workers. Cultural competence enables the worker to interact with everybody across diverse cultures. This paper is a discussion of cultural strengths, in the personal field as a social worker, misunderstandings, and personal strategies of expanding cultural competence.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The client population that I serve has shown a constant cultural strength of seeking redirection in their lives. According to me, seeking redirection is a powerful indicator of a remorseful individual, who has admitted that a mistake was made in the past and is willing to embrace change. An example of this culture is a case involving a teenager, who finally admitted being accountable for the death of his sister during, a session with me. This population has the strength to read the body language and the emotions of the workers. The understanding of these responses is useful to the social workers as they shall understand how to handle the clients mostly during therapy depending on the emotional signals expressed by the worker. I however still need to pay attention to this culture during the practicum.

The misunderstandings and misinterpretations that I have to be mindful of when working with my clients is making assumptions and judgments. I work with convicted people, believed to be criminals and social misfits. I need to talk with them and learn about their perspectives. I believe that it is more important to understand the reason why people did their actions and their justifications. Avoiding passing judgment makes the healing process easier and the reformation of an individual is found in listening to their opinions.

There are strategies that I have that are useful, for my understanding and expansion of cultural competency. The first strategy is, participating in the culture during the practicum. Being present, allows me to be in the best position, to understand some issues related to justice and the impacts of wrong convictions on an individual’s behavior(Shepherds & Phillips,2016). Another strategy would be the study of behavior and how it is perceived in this particular group of people. I have always held a perception that this group of people needs respect. They are in the process of reforming and offering them respect makes them feel worth living good lives again. The use of these strategies would be useful in creating a better working environment, where the client feels free to speak the truth. The strategies would make the placement program an existing experience.

In conclusion, understanding the cultural strengths of a group of clients is useful in changing the approach of service. Serving prison convicts is difficult because there are many misinterpretations of who they are in society. Avoiding judgments makes them feel secure.

Reference

Shepherd, S., & Phillips, G. (2016). Cultural ‘inclusion ‘or institutional decolonization: how should prisons address the mental health needs of indigenous prisoners. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 50(4), 307-308. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephane_Shepherd/publication/283643102_Cultural_'Inclusion'_or_Institutional_Decolonisation_How_should_prisons_address_the_mental_health_needs_of_Indigenous_prisoners/links/585671c808ae77ec37092610/Cultural-Inclusion-or-Institutional-Decolonisation-How-should-prisons-address-the-mental-health-needs-of-Indigenous-prisoners.pdf