Service Delivery for Culturally Diverse Populations

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(No Transcript)
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Service Delivery for Culturally Diverse
Populations

• National Childrens Advocacy Center
• CAC Management Training
• Wednesday, April 9, 2008
• Huntsville, Alabama

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Overview

• Cultural Implications
• Barriers to Service Delivery
• Cultural Competencies

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Objective

• To affirm the value of cultural sensitivity in
  providing quality service delivery for diverse
  populations.

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A Premise

• People support cultural sensitivity to the extent
  that they value humanity.

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Rationale for Culturally Sensitive Service
Delivery

• Shifting Demographics
• A recent census estimated that over the next few
  years 75 of new population growth will be among
  minority populations.
• By 2056, the average American will list his/her
  ancestry as African, Asian, Latino, or Arabic.

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Cultural Implications

• Multicultural literacy will become a major
  element in running a company efficiently. The
  inability to interface with different cultures
  will produce costly roadblocks in the team
  performance of a diverse workforce.
• The majority of workers will need diversity
  training in order to interface with an unfamiliar
  clientele.
• Corporations that have not focused on diversity
  will need to dedicate more resources to
  recruitment, development and retention of
  diversity-proficient personnel.
• American Diversity Report

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Cultural Dynamics that Influence Our Beliefs

• Primary
• Ethnicity/Race
• Gender
• Religion
• Sexual Orientation
• Disability
• Age
• Class

• Secondary
• Geographic location
• Employment status
• Marital status
• Education

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Culture in Context

• Our cultural sensitivity shapes the context in
  which we perceive our own and others
  experiences.

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Perspective in Context

• Everybody doesnt see things from the same point
  of view.
• There are different ways of looking at the same
  thing.
• Social interaction is productive for
  understanding perspective.
• Some people will get it sooner than others.
• Some people will never get it.
• It will shape everything that what we think,
  say and do.

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Cultural Implications

• Service providers must be attuned to their own
  beliefs about members of other cultural groups
  and ensure that these beliefs do not negatively
  influence their service delivery.
• Effective service providers MUST be able to
  communicate with others who may speak a
  different language and be aware of the cultural
  factors that will influence the process.
• Providers need to be sure that their personal
  beliefs do not become the standard to which they
  legally and ethically seek to hold others.

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Cultural Competence

• Cultural competence is achieved when the policies
  and practices of an organization, or the values
  and behaviors of an individual foster effective
  cross cultural communication and service
  delivery. 
• A cultural organization values the people who
  work there, understands the community in which it
  operates, and embraces its consumers as valuable
  members of that community. 
• This means that the culture of the organization
  reflects inclusiveness and institutionalizes the
  process of learning about differences. 

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Cultural Implications

• The lack of cultural awareness and cultural
  sensitivity is a barrier to effective service
  delivery.

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Common Barriers to Service Delivery to Diverse
Populations

• Language
• Immigration status
• Attitude
• Access to services
• Transportation
• Bias/Perception

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The Cultural Climate

• Members of an organization with cultural
  competence as a goal examine their own cultures,
  to understand how they, as cultural entities,
  impact the perception and interaction of those
  who are different. 
• A diversity-related attitude is a degree of
  readiness to behave in a given manner toward
  culturally different people.

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Cultural Competencies

• Demonstrate qualities that reflect genuineness,
  empathy, warmth and the capacity to respond
  flexibly.
• Understand the dynamics of monocultural
  (traditional), acculturating (transitional),
  bicultural and biracial consumers and families.
• Create an interdisciplinary team to promote and
  implement effective service provision.
• Understand differences in the attribution of
  illness (religious, supernatural, witchcraft,
  etc.)

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Cultural Competencies

• Understand culturally-based folk healing systems
  and traditions across different cultural
  communities.
• Avoid under-diagnosis, misdiagnosis, or
  over-diagnosis.
• Formulate culturally competent treatment plans
  that are appropriate for the consumer and the
  familys concept of illness.
• Create multidimensional treatment plans that
  include culture, family and community.

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Cultural Competencies

• Conduct culturally sensitive community research,
  and utilize culturally appropriate community
  resources, such as family, church, community
  members and other groups)
• Know when and how to use interpreters.
• Understand the limitations of using interpreters.
• Be humble and a student of cultural consumers.

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Cultural Competencies

• Openly discuss racial and ethnic differences and
  issues, and respond to culturally-based cues.
• Recognize and actively combat racism, racial
  stereotypes, and myths in individuals and in
  institutions.
• Understand the psychosocial stressors relevant
  for culturally diverse consumers, such as war,
  trauma, migration/acculturation stress, and
  socioeconomic status.

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Remember!

• Cultural competency is a process, not a product.

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The human differences we see on the outside
(that we spend so much time evaluating)- size,
skin color, eye shape, hair texture- are not
matched by differences on the inside. In fact,
every person on Earth shares 99.9 of the same
DNA sequences. All humans, no matter how
ethnically diverse, are essentially identical. We
are all cut from the same cloth, made on the same
pattern, granted the same strengths and
weaknesses and will ultimately share the same
fate.Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl
Sagan
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www.mxlife.com
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Maximum Life Enhancement, Inc.Customized
Management Educational Consulting

• CONTACT INFORMATION
• Kenneth Anderson, President
• 3109 Gayhart Drive
• Huntsville, Alabama 35810-3067
• E-Mail mxlife_at_aol.com
• Web Site www.mxlife.com
• Telephone [phone] (office)
• [phone] (cell)