Cultural strengths are emphasized by responding to such practical issues when utilizing ethno-specific understandings. Cultural competence aims to provide a framework in order to address cultural diversity and equity concerns 38,44. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour, which amounts to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people”. In the UK and Canadian transcultural mental fields, Fernando , Sashidharan , and colleagues have paid significant attention to issues of racism embedded in systems themselves, particularly with regard to the psychiatric service system. “Racism is a generalizing definition and valuation of differences, whether real or imaginary, to the advantage of the one defining and deploying them accusateur, and to the detriment of the one subjected to that act of definition victime, whose purpose is to justify (social or physical) hostility and assault aggression.”
Resources for Counseling Professionals on Decolonizing Mental Health & Social Justice
- For families, the stigma can lead to shame and isolation, making seeking necessary support and resources more difficult.
- Knowing the difference helps clinicians move past surface-level sensitivity and provide genuinely inclusive, client-centered treatment.
- For society at large, stigma can result in the misallocation of resources, with mental health services often being underfunded and overlooked .
- This might mean working in different communities, seeking out supervisors from diverse backgrounds, or participating in cultural immersion experiences.
- Racism, sexism, ableism — all of these ‘isms and others — are embedded in the world at large and trickle down to national levels, state levels, institutions, and systems of care and how policies and procedures are established.
- Finally, it is recommended that future research examine the effectiveness of such consistent frameworks within training and teaching contexts, inclusive of service-recipient voices.
Jackson and Samuels introduced cultural attunement to social work practice with culturally diverse populations, indicating that “Attunement requires one’s ‘cultural humility’ and awareness and acknowledgement of individual and group based experiences of pain and oppression (Hoskins, 1999)” . If you are seeking mental health treatment, consider seeking out a therapist who practices cultural humility, and who can provide culturally responsive and affirming care. Still, this study represents an important step to understanding mental health providers’ attitudes and intentions to practice with cultural humility, as well as underscoring the nuances of when and how these practices are used.
Be respectful about cultural experiences
Using cultural stereotypes in this way disregards the heterogeneity of groups and wrongly assumes that cultural beliefs and behaviors always go along with ethnic identity. It is problematic when researchers use cultural and racial stereotypes based on someone’s ethnic identity or national origin to explain study findings. Often the values of medical training, and to some degree nursing training, reflect a strong inclination toward medications, procedures, and cure, and less focus on psychosocial and spiritual influences. Specifically nurse researchers first must identify that their own values, perspectives, and biases are derived not only from their own cultural origin, but also from the biomedical world view of their professional training. Family experiences and values, peer influences, relationships with different types of people are also reviewed.
The results were striking, with significant improvements observed across multiple domains of cultural humility following the workshop. The workshop, presented in a virtual format to medical student volunteers, utilized interactive case-based discussions to reinforce concepts of cultural humility. One solution is implementing cultural humility workshops LGBTQ mental health resources in Suffolk County tailored to specific cultural groups. The lack of nuanced training particularly affects patients whose cultural perspectives are underrepresented in curricula.
While cultural competence has played a significant role in advancing multicultural care, it also has notable limitations. Cultural competence training often emphasizes increasing awareness of cultural factors such as race, ethnicity, language, religion, and immigration history. In an increasingly diverse society, culturally responsive therapy has become a necessity. Clinicians hold a responsibility to engage in critical self-reflection and critical self-reflexive processes in their culturally attuned work with clients. Research to understand the impact of stigmatization of mental health patients and its impact in providing services is warranted. Evidence-based interventions, including education, contact-based interventions, and culturally sensitive practices can help overcome these barriers.
What it’s not—related concepts
Relationships between the study team and study participants must be thoughtfully and courageously examined along with barriers imposed by the use of stereotypes to classify individuals. Cultural humility calls on individuals to be flexible and humble enough to let go of the false sense of security that stereotyping brings and to explore the cultural dimensions of the experiences of each person. Through mindfulness practices one can cultivate self-awareness through noticing bodily cues, thoughts, and emotions, and awareness and sensitivity to others, to context and circumstances, and to the environment.