APA Guidelines On Multicultural Issues In Counseling

Multicultural issues are an indisputable part of counselling, and the counselors need to prepare well to meet the needs of different populations and serve them optimally. Every individual exists in social, historical, political and economic contexts and this calls for an increased understanding of these contexts on the behavior of the individuals. The Guidelines on Multicultural Education offer Psychologists a guidance on the changing needs of society and continuing evolution of psychology. The specific objectives of these guidelines are to provide the psychologists the need to address multiculturalism and diversity in education, research, training and practice (APA Guidelines on Multicultural Education 2016). They should have access to relevant
Multicultural Guidelines address the different needs of different individuals and especially the marginalized minority groups (American Psychological Association, 2008). Multiculturalism and cultural competency have bene essential subjects in mental health care and the Psychologists are expected to be cultural responsiveness and competent. Multicultural Guidelines are supported and advocated in mental health professional Organizations. Yet, the concept has met with controversies because of some key issues surrounding cultural competency (Sue et al., 2009).The growing diversity of the U.S. population appeals for cultural culturally competent health
There are some limitations in cultural competency related to inadequate descriptors, lack of measurements and various meanings. There is still no compelling evidence if those adaptations promote better clinical outcomes for the ethnic minority. Untested cultural modifications may lead to inadequacies in the treatment of ethnic minorities. Moreover, there is a major disconnect between cultural competency guidelines and psychotherapy research that examine cultural issues in treatment (Sue et al., 2009). The guidelines focus on attitudes and skills of the therapist so as to minimize the gap between the client and the care provider. The former has tended to focus on characteristics, values, attitudes, and skills in the care. There is a need to focus on changes in treatment procedures and this may account for the slow progress made in developing culturally competent mental health care (Sue et al., 2009). It is feared that by encouraging for multicultural competencies for ethnic minority groups, the other diversity characteristics such as gender, social class, and sexual orientation may get