Culturally Competency in Child Welfare

Cultural Competency in Child Welfare

Cultural Competency in Child Welfare

Cultural Competency is a must in child welfare. Social workers must break the barriors between their own culture and other cultures. Samantrai (2004) said that cultural competency is defined as “ways of thinking and behaving that enable members of one cultural, ethnic, or linguistic group to work effectively with members of another.” For us to understand a culture, we must be aware of our own culture and how we define ourselves. We must take off our cultural filters and look at other cultures with a clear, non skewed view. A culture of a person might explain unknown actions and traditions in which we are unaware. We must be able to change the way we view things so we learn to fit our evaluations into the context of another’s culture, if possible. In the journal article, Conducting Culturally Competent Evaluations of Child Welfare Programs and Practice, Dettlaff and Fong (2011) speak of the doubling numbers of immigrant parents and the large number of African Americans in our child welfare system. They speak about the changing demographics and increasing needs to address the racial and ethnic disparities. They believe that it starts with the initial evaluation. Most evaluations are done with the dominant culture. In the United States that is a predominately white standard. When an evaluation is done it is very important to do it with that child’s culture in mind. Dettlaff and Fong (2004) say this will ensure safety, permanency, and well being of the child.

The article speaks about how we as a society in the passed based a child evaluation on a white culture, even when the culture was non white. We have come to realize that we must evaluate using models from the child’s culture. This allows us to have a much better outcome in safety and permanency. However sometimes there is an issue of language barriers, different values, and emotions. The article states that these problems often come from limited data. We must realize that the immigrant population is growing. We must use the areas were the immigrant population has grown the most to gather our information. We must try to understand the problems that immigrant families and children face and how to deal with the problems when planning services for each family. (Dettlaff & Fong, 2011).
For an evaluation to be done correctly we must be familiar with the culture that is relevant to our clients. Sometimes when we talk about culturally competency, we assume that we must be completely all-knowing of the culture. This is not true. We must know the basics of the culture. There is no way possible to know all things about all cultures. The biggest thing that the article states is that we must be able to work cross-culturally. We must always keep an open mind and try to never make assumptions. (Dettlaff & Fong, 2011)
The article also continues to explain how to obtain cultural evaluations and what guidelines we should follow. The article speaks of conceptual framework. A framework must focus on three areas: cultural awareness, knowledge acquisition, and skill development.
Cultural awareness is the workers knowledge of their culture and the culture of the client. This allows the evaluator to be sensitive to her clients culture while be knowledgeable of it as well. Knowledge acquisition is where we gain knowledge from another expert source that is not our own. Skill development is when we take the knowledge we have learned and develop our own skills according to this knowledge.
There are so many different things that we must learn about in a culture. One of the most important is the language. The words may have different meanings when translated. They must be precise or there will be miscommunication with the client. (Dettlaff & Fong, 2011). The article also speaks of creating and adapting evaluation tools to become culturally competent. One evaluation tool is to have a cultural translator. This person will help the evaluator learn the different ways of the community their client is from. The translator should be from within the community. The article also speaks of forming focus groups when using the translator. The focus group will allow feed back. This would allow us to explore the difference in languages and certain concepts. This also involves the community in your evaluation. (Dettlaff & Fong, 2011). The article speaks about adapting your evaluation tools. We must adapt our tools when new information comes in through our translators. The translations must be re-translated several times to make sure the meanings are clear. The article also states even with the re-evaluations we can still be wrong and this will be a continuous process. (Dettlaff & Fong, 2011). The article mentions challenges for the child welfare system when it comes to cultural competency. Our own federal and state laws that govern our system get in our

way. The biggest struggle is between federal and state guidelines. The federal guidelines want safety, permanency, and well being and the state guidelines want definitions of abuse and neglect to children. Guidelines provide no room for cultural competency because the guidelines are based on a western perspective. Most are based on U.S. norms and values. The problem comes in because they may conflict with the norms and values of the other cultures. The entire article is arguing that culturally competent evaluations need to begin at the beginning of a program. The child welfare system needs to allow the community to “buy-in” to the programs. This would allow them to be vested in the programs. If this became the norm then communities would not see child welfare only as someone that comes in and takes children. This will allow them to see child welfare as a part of the community and a service for them instead of an enemy. (Dettlaff & Fong, 2011). Culturally competency goes along with the systems perspective. In the systems perspective we look at the family as a whole and how it works together as a system. This can be applied to culture as well. A culture is a system that interacts with the community, the family, and the individual. We can not cut out culture in the system and expect to gain favorable results. I agree completely with the article. The article expresses the importance of a family’s culture. We as an individual are rooted deeply in our culture. Our cultures teach us everything. They teach us how we should raise our children, how to conduct ourselves in public, and how to handle adversity and stress. We are our culture. We are intertwined with our culture and it can not be separated. We as Americans believe that everyone is just like us and should handle situations just like we do. The article talks

about how we should involve the community. I believe this is the only way to truly understand a culture. A translator is recommended. I believe a translator is a great idea. We need to make sure words and phrases we use are in line with the ones our client use. This could cause a lot of trouble if a word, a gesture, or a look could mean something derogatory in one culture but not another. With a translator and community participation this would not happen as often. Sometimes a translator or community participation may not be available. This is when the social worker must seek out the culture involved with their client. In our text book it speaks of being knowledgeable about our client’s culture. It states for us to seek course work, field work, or research on culturally diverse clients. They state the best way to learn a culture is to go through real experiences with different cultures. We must be willing to learn about other cultures. Sometimes learning about a culture involves listening to the interaction between family and friends in the community. ( Mather, Lagger, & Harris, 2007). The article talks about how cultural competency begins with the evaluation of the family. We must learn about the culture in the evaluation before we can move any further with a plan for a client or family. I believe clients who have a different culture do not want to be compared to our American, white, western customs or practices. They have their own way of doing things and they want us to respect their culture. By learning ones culture a social worker can gain trust with a client. I believe a client will feel more trustful knowing we cared enough to learn about them.

In conclusion, I have been forced to take off my cultural filter of my American views and values. This article made me realize that we must be culturally competent not only in our culture but in the clients culture as well. This allows the client to feel important and understood. I realize that if a client feels misunderstood then he is less likely to open up and try anything I offer for help. We as social workers do not have to know everything about a culture. This would be almost impossible with the vast amount of cultures in the United States. We need to understand the language and the main customs involved. The most important thing the article was trying to convey is we must be willing to learn, listen, and understand.

References

Dettlaff, A. J., & Fong, R. (2011) Conducting Culturally Competent Evaluations of Child
Welfare Programs and Practices. Child Welfare, 90(2), 49-68

Mathers, J., Lager, P. B., & Harris, N. J. (2007). Child Welfare: Polices and Best Practices. (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA. Thomson Brooks/Cole

Samautrai, K. (2004). Culturally Competent Public Child Welfare Practice. Pacific
Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.