Rethinking Social Work Practice with Multicultural Communities


Book Description

With research showing that clients from diverse racial and ethnic groups disproportionately experience barriers in their interactions with social services and that providers recognize the need to be better prepared to work with these groups, this book invites us to rethink current approaches to social work practice with multicultural communities. We begin with a synthesis of the current evidence on the provision of care to multicultural communities that provides an in-depth look at both client and provider experiences. The following chapters offer tangible, research-based approaches to engaging with multicultural clients and reveal often unrecognized problems with current models of social work practice. A unique compilation of rigorous qualitative, experimental, and community-based studies demonstrate the effectiveness of culturally grounded interventions and identify the specific factors associated with positive outcomes. Areas covered include disability, marriage and couple relationship problems, domestic violence, and mental illness within Latinx, African American, First Nations, and South Asian communities. As the authors in this book show, the stories of multicultural communities are narratives of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention. Yet, social work underutilizes rich family and community cultural resources. By not facilitating their involvement, social service systems compromise these vital resources which social services cannot replace. In arguing that we need to expand professional boundaries to encompass indigenous practices, family and extended kin, and therapeutic relationships that make sense to different cultural groups, this book will be of interest to those studying the ways in which social work practice can be improved to better suit the needs of a racially and ethnically diverse population. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work.




Innovations in Delivering Culturally Sensitive Social Work Services


Book Description

Innovations in Delivering Culturally Sensitive Social Work Services: Challenges for Practice and Education is for human service professionals and educators who are seeking innovative ways to make their practice and service delivery more culturally appropriate and their education and training more relevant. As Editor Yvonne Asamoah explains, “There has never been a more critical time for social work practitioners, educators, and policy makers to critique their programs, service delivery systems, and curricula for cultural relevance. Apart from federal and state mandates which require agencies to demonstrate how they are preparing workers to deliver culturally sensitive services, demographic shifts and increasing economic hardships are continually producing a more diverse clientele in need of service. . . . Being sensitive to the needs of the local community and the subtle, but significant, ethnic differences within them is critical and has important implications for training, policy, and practice.” The contributors describe actual models put into practice in the U.S. and Canada--analyzing the results and debating the issues of diversity and cultural sensitivity in regard to the social work profession. Innovations in Delivering Culturally Sensitive Social Work Services gives you an inside look at different approaches, programs, and studies, including: an innovative demonstration project designed to deliver social services to people from different cultures in Canada an eight-step communication process model that social work agency supervisors and training units may use to help workers become more effective multicultural practitioners a study on the incidents of misunderstanding between social workers from a Western-oriented society and those from a non-Western society in terms of culture shock the results of a statewide survey in Nevada on attitudes of social workers in relation to diversity, using a modified Multicultural Counseling Inventory to measure awareness, knowledge, and skills the four major multicultural issues considered critical to the delivery of health and mental health, and preventative and treatment services to Latino clients an examination of the issue of diversity in the workplace using the university and schools of social work as examples Other important contributions in Innovations in Delivering Culturally Sensitive Social Work Services include a unique look at the topic of cultural diversity and sensitivity from a management perspective--introducing you to the concept of the ‘globally aware’social work manager. Practical suggestions to assist you in achieving global awareness are provided through a “Global Problem Analysis Worksheet” including issues of staffing, hiring and retention of foreign born staff; service planning and organization to meet the needs of immigrants, refugees, and other international populations; staff development; and broader organizational concerns of information systems and policymaking. Two other chapters directly relate to the critical issues raised by Paige in his comprehensive 1986 work on cross-cultural orientation and applications. These chapters will help you view your own cross-cultural encounters with both clients and peers in a broader, theoretical context.




Diversity, Oppression, & Change


Book Description

Diversity, Oppression, and Change, Third Edition provides a culturally grounded approach to practice, policy, and research in social work and allied fields. The book's intersectionality perspective provides a lens through which students can identify connections between identities based on race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class, religion, and ability status. Through theoretical and empirical content as well as "Notes from the Field," students become familiar with the culturally grounded perspective and culturally appropriate ways of engaging with diverse communities. Marsiglia, Kulis, and Lechuga-Peña have crafted a book about hope and resiliency, the miraculous ability of individuals and communities to bounce back from oppressive experiences and historical trauma, and the role of social workers as allies in that journey.




Rethinking Social Work Practice with Multicultural Communities


Book Description

With research showing that clients from diverse racial and ethnic groups disproportionately experience barriers in their interactions with social services and that providers recognize the need to be better prepared to work with these groups, this book invites us to rethink current approaches to social work practice with multicultural communities. We begin with a synthesis of the current evidence on the provision of care to multicultural communities that provides an in-depth look at both client and provider experiences. The following chapters offer tangible, research-based approaches to engaging with multicultural clients and reveal often unrecognized problems with current models of social work practice. A unique compilation of rigorous qualitative, experimental, and community-based studies demonstrate the effectiveness of culturally grounded interventions and identify the specific factors associated with positive outcomes. Areas covered include disability, marriage and couple relationship problems, domestic violence, and mental illness within Latinx, African American, First Nations, and South Asian communities. As the authors in this book show, the stories of multicultural communities are narratives of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention. Yet, social work underutilizes rich family and community cultural resources. By not facilitating their involvement, social service systems compromise these vital resources which social services cannot replace. In arguing that we need to expand professional boundaries to encompass indigenous practices, family and extended kin, and therapeutic relationships that make sense to different cultural groups, this book will be of interest to those studying the ways in which social work practice can be improved to better suit the needs of a racially and ethnically diverse population. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work.




Making Work Pay


Book Description




Challenges and Opportunities in Health Professions Education


Book Description

This book addresses health professions educational challenges specific to non-Western cultures, implementing a shifting paradigm for educating future health professionals towards patient-centered care. While health professions education has received increasing attention in the last three decades, promoting student-centered learning principles pioneered by leaders in the medical community has, for the most part, remain rooted in the Western context. Building from Hofstede’s analysis of the phenomena of cultural dimensions, which underpin the way people build and maintain their relationships with others and influence social, economic, and political well-being across nations, this book demarcates the different cultural dimensions between East and West, applied to medical education. The respective ‘hierarchical’ and ‘collectivist’ cultural dimensions are unpacked in several studies stemming from non-western countries, with the capacity to positively influence healthcare education and services. The book provides new insights for researchers and health professional educators to understand how cultural context influences the input, processes, and output of health professionals’ education. Examples include how cultural context influences the ways in which students respond to teachers, how teachers giving feedback to students, and the challenges of peer feedback and group work. The authors also examine causes for student hesitation in proposing ideas, the pervasive cultural norm of maintaining harmony, the challenges of teamwork in clinical settings, the need to be sensitive to community health needs, the complexity of clinical decision making, and the challenge of how collectivist cultural values play into group dynamics. This book aims to advocate a more culturally-sensitive approach to educating health professionals, and will be relevant to both students and practitioners in numerous areas of public health and medical education.




Cultural and Social Diversity and the Transition from Education to Work


Book Description

This edited volume provides multidisciplinary and international insights into the policy, managerial and educational aspects of diverse students’ transitions from education to employment. As employers require increasing global competence on the part of those leaving education, this research asks whether increasing multiculturalism in developed societies, often seen as a challenge to their cohesion, is in fact a potential advantage in an evolving employment sector. This is a vital and under-researched field, and this new publication in Springer’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training series provides analysis both of theory and empirical data, submitted by researchers from nine nations including the USA, Oman, Malaysia, and countries in the European Union. The papers trace the origins of business demand for diversity in their workforce’s skill set, including national, local and institutional contexts. They also consider how social, demographic, cultural, religious and linguistic diversity inform the attitudes of those seeking work—and those seeking workers. With clear suggestions for future research, this work on a topic of rising profile will be read with interest by educators, policy makers, employers and careers advisors.




Place Randomized Trials


Book Description

The phrase "evidence-based policy" is frequently used, but it's crucial that such claims are scrutinized and validated. When the data on social and behavioral interventions are presented, high-quality evidence must be clearly defined and the methodology behind such studies held to rigorous standards. Both the Cochrane Collaboration –focusing on healthcare – and the international Campbell Collaboration – concentrating on criminal justice, education, and social services – were created to develop, maintain and improve detailed guidelines for producing high-quality systematic reviews. And both organizations emphasize randomized controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of various interventions. As a springboard from the Campbell Collaboration initiative and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, this special issue of The Annals includes a thorough review of randomized tests across a variety of studies. Exploring significant dimensions of place randomized trials (also called cluster randomized trials or group randomized trials), these papers shed light on recent efforts to enhance the quality of designing such trials as well as on results reporting. The research topics included in this volume are diverse. Taken together, these papers offer important insight into the nuts and bolts of conducting randomized trials: the significance of place in trials; how such studies are initiated; the incentives and justifications needed by participants; how to overcome challenges of implementation; and where to find out what studies have already been conducted or are currently underway. While providing far-reaching insight into the topic of randomized testing, these papers also identify new issues and key questions to be further addressed in future research. Scholars and policymakers alike will find this collection of rigorous research essential in understanding the implications of current evidence-based policies as well as a guidepost for designing and conducting new studies.




Challenges, Opportunities and Innovations in Social Work Field Education


Book Description

This book collates and analyses the current research, debates, opportunities and practices in social work field education into one volume and contextualises this material within the broader context of social work. Current concerns about risk and uncertainty in field education are explored from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Social work field education is an integral component of social work education, yet its sustainability is increasingly challenged. Issue such as finding enough quality placements with accredited social workers, curriculum development, student diversity, and placement assessment of learning are being examined by researchers and practitioners alike. This represents a challenge for the social work profession generally. By drawing on traditional and alternative pedagogical perspectives on field education and constructions of risk and uncertainty evident in current discourse, the book presents innovative responses to existing challenges. Providing a reference point for future knowledge building in sustainable field education pedagogy and practice, this book will interest university field education programs and industry field educators internationally.