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Supporting Native American Families of Persons with Developmental Disabilities
DELIVERING CULTURALLY COMPETENT SERVICES |
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Many professionals working with persons with developmental disabilities went into their field, whether it is education, speech therapy, medicine, nursing or another related discipline, because they wanted to help people. However, what is defined as ‘helping’ may vary from one culture to another. In one culture, asking about problems within the family may be seen as a necessary first step in providing services. In another, it is perceived as an incredibly rude intrusion by a stranger in areas that are meant to be private.
From the Administration on Aging Cultural Competence Guidebook
“It would not be feasible for the social worker to try to memorize cultural traits while trying to become familiar with these families. Subgroups and individuals within particular groups are quite diverse. Instead, the social worker must have an appreciation of the cultural differences between her culture and her clients’, respect her clients’ culture, and behave in a manner that exemplifies this respect. The goals in becoming more culturally competent are to continue to learn about differences and to rid oneself of stereotypes. Cultural competence demands an approach to service recipients in which assumptions are few.”
This guidebook discusses cultural competency in general, with a focus on aging. Much of the specific material discusses African-American or Hispanic elders because these are the two largest populations. However, the book makes many good points that apply to any culture. For example…
‘This guidebook argues that to achieve cultural competence, professionals must first have a sense of compassion and respect for people who are culturally different. Then, practitioners can learn behaviors that are congruent with cultural competence. Just learning the behavior is not enough. Underlying the behavior must be an attitudinal set of behavior skills and moral responsibility. It is not about the things one does. It is about fundamental attitudes. When a person has an inherent caring, appreciation and respect for others they can display warmth, empathy and genuineness. This then enables them to have culturally congruent behaviors and attitudes.’
We couldn’t agree more. If you are just going through the motions to get “those people” off your back and satisfy “them”, we believe you are destined for failure.
To download the Administration on Aging's entire 45-page guidebook on Cultural Competency for free, click here
For more information on culturally competent programming, click here.
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