Social Work Values and Multicultural Competence

1
Session 3

• Social Work Values and Multicultural Competence
• YOUVE GOT TO STAND FOR SOMETHING OR YOULL FALL
  FOR ANYTHING

2
Outline

• Celebrating Cultural Diversity
• A Solution-Focused Approach to Cross-Cultural
  Practice
• NASW Cultural Competency Standards
• Translating Professional Values into Practice
  Skills
• NASW Code of Ethics

3
Celebrating Cultural Diversity(Lillian Roybel
Rose, 1990)

• Inherent in our roles is the need to protect
  ourselves from being labeled racist
• Celebrating cultural diversity means building
  alliances across differences
• We can only appreciate another culture when we
  come to know our own
• What creates allies in any cross-cultural
  interaction is bonding-sharing our humanness

4
Defining Oppression

• Unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power
• By definition OPPRESSION is an abuse of POWER
• Two types of Oppression
• Institutionalized Oppression
• Laws, policies, practices, traditions reflect
  beliefs of dominant group
• Oppression is maintained through imbalance of
  social and economic power
• Non-Institutionalized Oppression

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Stages of Solution Building

• Describing the problem
• Developing well-formed goals
• Exploring for exceptions
• End of session feedback
• Evaluating client progress

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The Client As Expert

• In SF approach we insist that clients are the
  experts on their lives
• We ask them what they would like to see changed
  in their lives
• We interview clients about what will be different
  in their lives when their problems are solved
• We ask clients about their perceptions of
  exceptions to their problems

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Skills For Not Knowing

• Listening
• Formulating questions
• Getting details
• Echoing clients key words
• Open questions
• Summarizing
• Paraphrasing
• Practitioners nonverbal behavior

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Skills For Not Knowing

• Use of silence
• Noticing Clients nonverbal behavior
• Complimenting
• Affirming clients perceptions
• Natural empathy
• Normalizing
• Noticing hints of possibility
• Exploring client meanings
• Relationship questions
• Amplifying solution talk

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NASW Standards for Cultural Competence in Social
Work Practice

• Standard 1. Ethics and ValuesSocial workers
  shall function in accordance with the values,
  ethics, and standards of the profession,
  recognizing how personal and professional values
  may conflict with or accommodate the needs of
  diverse clients.
• Standard 2. Self-AwarenessSocial workers shall
  seek to develop an understanding of their own
  personal, cultural values and beliefs as one way
  of appreciating the importance of multicultural
  identities in the lives of people.
• Standard 3. Cross-Cultural KnowledgeSocial
  workers shall have and continue to develop
  specialized knowledge and understanding about the
  history, traditions, values, family systems, and
  artistic expressions of major client groups that
  they serve.

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NASW Standards for Cultural Competence in Social
Work Practice

• Standard 4. Cross-Cultural SkillsSocial workers
  shall use appropriate methodological approaches,
  skills, and techniques that reflect the workers
  understanding of the role of culture in the
  helping process.
• Standard 5. Service DeliverySocial workers shall
  be knowledgeable about and skillful in the use of
  services available in the community and broader
  society and be able to make appropriate referrals
  for their diverse clients.
• Standard 6. Empowerment and AdvocacySocial
  workers shall be aware of the effect of social
  policies and programs on diverse client
  populations, advocating for and with clients
  whenever appropriate

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NASW Standards for Cultural Competence in Social
Work Practice

• Standard 7. Diverse WorkforceSocial workers
  shall support and advocate for recruitment,
  admissions and hiring, and retention efforts in
  social work programs and agencies that ensure
  diversity within the profession.
• Standard 8. Professional EducationSocial workers
  shall advocate for and participate in educational
  and training programs that help advance cultural
  competence within the profession.
• Standard 9. Language DiversitySocial workers
  shall seek to provide or advocate for the
  provision of information, referrals, and services
  in the language appropriate to the client, which
  may include use of interpreters.
• Standard 10. Cross-Cultural LeadershipSocial
  workers shall be able to communicate information
  about diverse client groups to other
  professionals.

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Multicultural Competence

• Need for cultural competence
• Pinderhughes (1995) defines people as diverse as
  anyone who differs from the white middle class
  norm
• Self awareness is very important
• Awareness of others
• Membership in some cultural groups

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What is a Culturally Competent Practitioner?

• Culturally competent practitioners are in the
  process of learning to
• Develop and use a variety of practice strategies
  that will benefit culturally diverse clients
• Know and communicate the difference between their
  own and clients values, biases, and behaviors
• Assess and communicate the political, social, and
  cultural meaning of ones cultural membership in
  American society

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What is a Culturally Competent Practitioner?

• Assess and communicate the potential impact of
  the practitioners and clients cultural
  membership in the helping relationship
• Identify, and if needed, to change their
  culturally bound assumptions, values, biases in a
  way that benefits cross-cultural interactions
• Acquire new knowledge, skills, and values in way
  that benefit cross-cultural interactions
• Have open minds and hearts

15
Personal Values and Resources

• Use of Self in Social Work
• Increasing self awareness
• Clarifying your vales (Ethic of anti-oppressive
  practice)-
• In what ways do oppression and social exclusion
  impact clients?
• What does it mean for social work practice to be
  anti-oppressive?

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Social Workers Personal Qualities

• Genuineness
• Acceptance and respect
• Positive view of people
• Quit trying to figure out Why
• Describe events in clients lives (what? Where?
  When? Who?)
• Trustworthiness
• Reliability, honesty, credibility, sincerity
• Empathy
• Not the same as PITY or SYMPATHY
• Empathy validates clients experiences

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Social Workers Personal Qualities

• Being sensitive to Diversity
• Gender, age, ethnicity, life style, religion,
  values, sexual preference, class
• Look for shared meaning
• Recognize and accept differences
• Cultural memberships define the way we understand
  the world
• Bridge cultural gaps open communication, active
  listening

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Constructing Empowering Relationships

• Recognize rights and privileges
• Balances and distributes power
• Clarifying the social workers approach
  influences roles in the relationship
• Taking responsibilities
• Social workers Professional, ethical, legal
  mandates, skills and knowledge
• Clients- active involvement,- shifts from worker
  centered to client controlled
• Clients who feel helpless
• Do not ignore power differences implied in
  dominant cultural values and conditioning

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Multicultural Competence

• Agency level cultural competence
• Agency policies
• Involving diverse clients in agency operations
• Décor, accessibility, culturally relevant
  programs
• Resource networks- include indigenous resources

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NASW Code of Ethics Preamble

• THE PRIMARY MISSION OF THE SOCIAL WORK
  PROFESSION IS TO ENHANCE HUMAN WELL-BEING AND
  HELP MEET THE BASIC HUMAN NEEDS OF ALL PEOPLE,
  WITH PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE NEEDS AND
  EMPOWERMENT OF PEOPLE WHO ARE VULNERABLE,
  OPPRESSED, AND LIVING IN POVERTY.

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PURPOSE OF THE CODE OF ETHICS

• IDENTIFIES CORE VALUES
• ESTABLISHES ETHICAL STANDARDS
• SOCIAL WORK PROFESSION ACCOUNTABILITY
• SOCIALIZES NEW PRACTITIONERS
• ESTABLISHES FORMAL PROCEDURES TO ASSESS UNETHICAL
  CONDUCT BY SOCIAL WORKERS

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CORE VALUES

• SERVICE
• SOCIAL JUSTICE
• INTEGRITY
• COMPETENCE
• HUMAN DIGNITY AND WORTH
• IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS

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SOCIAL WORKERS ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES TO
CLIENTS

• 1.01 COMMITMENT TO CLIENTS (ADVISE OF CHILD ABUSE
  SITUATIONS)
• 1.02 SELF DETERMINATION (OTHER THAN RISK TO SELF
  OR OTHERS)
• 1.03 INFORMED CONSENT
• 1.04 COMPETENCE
• 1.05 CULTURAL COMPETENCE
• 1.06 CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
• 1.07 PRIVACY CONFIDENTIALITY
• 1.08 SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS
• 1.012 DEROGATORY LANGUAGE

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SOCIAL WORKERS ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES TO
COLLEAGUES

• 2.01 RESPECT
• 2.02 INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION
• 2.05 CONSULTATION
• 2.07 SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS
• 2.10 INCOMPETENCE OF COLLEAGUES
• 2.11 UNETHICAL CONDUCT OF COLLEAGUES