DIVERSITY ISSUES

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DIVERSITY ISSUES

• Carole Madland, Ph.D.

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Ecosystem Framework

• Individual
• Home/family
• Ethnic culture
• Proximal social systems
• Wider social systems

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Where would prejudice show up?
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Ethnic Culture

• Definition Culture is a set of beliefs,
  attitudes, values, and standards of behavior that
  are passed from one generation to the next.
• Lisa Aronson Fontes

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Includes

• Language
• Worldview
• Dress
• Food
• Styles of communication
• Notions of wellness

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• Healing techniques
• Childrearing patterns
• Self identity

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RACE

• More social and political than biological
• Biracial is still not a term used in the U.S.
  Census
• Think Is your history culture considered
  central to national history?
• Or does it just merit a day or months special
  treatment?

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• People who are not of the dominant racial group
  are reminded daily of their race.
• White people have the luxury of forgetting about
  their race.

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Consequences

• Minorities are slow to trust people in positions
  of authority.
• The majority doesnt think for example,
  professor who teaches medical sociology includes
  no content about LGBT nor does that content exist
  in any text he is aware of.

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• Child may think adults dont care about his or
  her situation because s/he attends a very
  overcrowded, underfunded school with leaky roofs,
  broken toilets. Thus, child does not report abuse
  because s/he does not value herself/himself.

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• Ethnic culture can influence help-seeking
  strategies

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• Linguistic Misunderstanding A Laotian father
  said answered yes when he was asked it he slept
  with his daughter touched her private parts. He
  was charged. He had answered yes because he
  didnt understand. He went home killed all his
  children himself.

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BIASES

• Tremendous cumulative impact biases enter at all
  points from 1st suspicion of abuse to legal
  action
• Can result in falsely substantiating abuse to
  failure to substantiate when abuse does exist
• White families tend to receive more supportive
  services minorities receive more punitive
  responses

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CULTURE SHOCK

• Anxiety disorientation people feel as they try
  to adjust to a culture that is different from
  their own
• Distorts almost every aspect of daily life
• Complicates efforts to obtain accurate
  assessments of parenting
• Isolation

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Professional CultureProfessional Ethnocentrism

• E.G., teenagers become juveniles for probation
  officers
• Police legal vs. illegal
• Psychoanalyst unconscious processes shaped by
  childhood influences
• Social worker view child through systems theory

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• Nurses doctors focus on biological

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Solutions

• Team approach with different professions giving
  input
• Supervision by more experienced individuals
• Clarify your assumptions about the members of the
  group with whom you are working

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• Realize that your perceptions may vary
  considerably from the familys
• Accept that a climate of mistrust exists
• Understand that mutual stereotypes enter the
  interview room first
• Be conscious of the power relationships between
  you the family

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• When uncommon events occur, consider alternative
  explanations in addition to the obvious ones
• Accept admit your fallibility
• When you discover your discriminatory behaviors,
  make changes continue to work

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• Explore your setting for structures that foster
  prejudice
• Cultivate safe collegial relationships which will
  permit discussions of clinical discrimination
• Be open to learning from the families you treat
• Saba Rodgers (1990,p. 205)

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EXERCISES CASE I

• Child refuses to make eye contact, retreats from
  touch, demonstrates impaired interpersonal
  relations. What might be the cause(s)?

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• Answer did you list Asperger Syndrome?

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CASE II

• Child has swollen hands and feet. Cries when
  touched in those areas. What might be the
  cause(s)?

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• Did you list sickle-cell anemia?

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CASE III

• Child has a small, circular scar/red mark about
  the size of the head of a pencil. What might be
  the cause(s)?

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• Did you mention ringworm?

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CASE IV

• If you were going to explain to a group of
  immigrant parents what they needed to know to
  raise their children in this country, what are
  some of the main points you would make?

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CASE V

• A Latino mother made her 7 year old child kneel
  on uncooked rice for 10 minutes because he lied
  to her. How might you respond to this situation?

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CASE VI

• Neighbor calls and reports that she saw the
  neighbors child wrapped tightly in a blanket so
  that the child could not move the child was left
  on the bed in this fashion. Is this abuse?

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• In some cultures this is acceptable. It is called
  swaddling. Some toddlers will even bring the
  blanket to their mother at naptime to be wrapped.
  As long as a child is not left too long or bound
  too tightly, this would most likely not be child
  abuse.

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CASE VII

• Child has colic. (Colic is defined as more than
  three hours of unexplained crying three times a
  week.) Parent gives child gripe water. Is this
  a problem?

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• Gripe water is an old herbal remedy containing
  such things as fennel, ginger, dill, or anise.
  Used by older British nannies, in the West
  Indies, Egypt, India, Canada
• Problem often contains 8 alcohol

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CASE VII

• An African-American teen returns from a visit to
  Africa with scars on his face. Is this abuse?

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• These are ceremonial scares that can be tied to
  religious beliefs.

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CASE VIII

• A young, male, teen Muslim beats himself on his
  back with chains, slaps himself, and beats
  himself with small objects. What might be the
  reason for this?

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• Shia Muslims from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,
  etc. do this to mourn the martyrdom of the
  grandsons of the prophet Mohammad.

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CASE IX

• Child of mother from Dominican Republic has human
  bite marks. What might be the cause/reason for
  this?

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• Common in country for mother to bite child it is
  showing affection and can leave marks. Hes so
  good I could just eat him up! Son bites back.
  It is like a game. They see who pulls away first
  due to pain.

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• Material from Child Abuse Culture Working with
  Diverse Families by Lisa Aronson Fontes, 2005,
  Guildford Press, New York

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Interviewing Kids with Autism

• Remember every autistic child is different.
• Children will fall all over the autistic spectrum
  from mild to severe

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Suggestions

• Schedule interview for first or last appointment
  of the day
• Consider having it in a familiar place for the
  child
• Keep language concrete to the point
• Avoid idioms, metaphors, irony

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• Allow for extra processing time
• Minimize excess stimulation in the room
• Dont demand eye contact
• Dont assume nonverbal client doesnt understand
• Child may have echolalia (repeat what you say or
  others have said)

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• Avoid touching them or if you do, warn them
• Have child wait in quiet place
• Child can be sensitive to light
• Dont try to stop reactions to overload or you
  will end up with meltdown

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• Children can have high thresholds for pain
• Children can become transfixed by irrelevant
  stimuli
• Do not break routine
• Remember these children have interesting/amazing
  strengths

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Signs

• Major delay in language development
• Not so major avoiding eye contact not liking
  touch
• Source Sara Gilliuson