Download While certain common human needs are essential for all persons

Human Diversity
Multiculturalism, Social Pluralism, and Socio-Demographic Variability
• “The ethnically competent social worker of today and of the future must be
sensitive to ethnic considerations and competent in dealing with ethnic
concerns.”
Leigh(1985) “The Ethnically Competent Social Worker.”
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
•
Understand the meaning of human diversity and its significance in human
service
•
Recognize the need for skill and sensitivity to human diversity throughout
all phases of the General Method
•
Understand multiculturalism, social pluralism, and socio-demographic
variance and their relationship to prejudice
•
Grow in self-awareness and understanding of probable reasons for the
prejudices experienced in own life
While certain common human needs are essential for
all persons, individuals’ frames of reference for thinking
and feeling about these needs and seeking ways to
fulfill them differ
While a good number of people like coffee there are an infinite
variety of ways people drink their coffee
People like difference kinds of ice cream and like to eat their
ice cream in different ways
Some like to have pickles in theirs
Others like to have garlic flavor
• All the same people feel in a multitude of ways and
experience the “felt-sense” of their experiences in totally
varied ways.
• UP TO HERE FOR TH. SEPT. 20TH
Cultural Diversity
• 6000+ communities and languages
• 175 million persons living away from country of birth
• Number of visible minorities in Canada to double by 2017
(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2003)
Multiculturalism
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Race
National Origin
Religion (Spirituality)
Ethnic Group
• Social Pluralism, and Socio-Demographic Variability
Human Diversity

Focus on:

Person’s membership in a particular cultural group

Pluralizing social stratification influences

Personal and socio-demographic variability in endowment, personality,
age, gender, sexual orientation, health, and physical and mental ability.
Diversity: Challenges for Practitioners and Researchers
– Understanding the Client Population/Data needs
– Differential Impact of Services on specific Populations
– Differential Impact of Policy on specific populations
Culture and National Origin
Culture
A set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society
or social group
Encompasses lifestyles, values, traditions, beliefs, art and literature
(UNESCO, 2003)
National Origin
National origin refers to persons who share a place or country of origin and, often,
a common ancestry.
They also share a sense of historical circumstances, continuity, and psychosocial
referents that create a sense of social group identity.
Culture
• Cultural influences include:
– Goals and aspirations,
– Patterns of resources
– Utilization or help-seeking behaviors,
– Self concepts or identity,
– Patterns of communication and emotional control, and
– Ways of perceiving life events and social situations
The Cultural Iceberg
• Cultural reality is apparent in
• Societal structure of technology, laws and governance structures,
religion and rituals, and social rules
• Cognitive, affective, and action realms associated with individual
and collective values, beliefs, attitudes, ideas, and expectation in
everyday life.
• Cultural values affect the way people make sense of:
– problems, situations, and the actions taken in pursuit of important
goals.
• Each culture has ideal role types, normative expectations,
and shared symbolic interpretations that:
• Give meaning experiences
• Ground and identify a person’s sense of self
• Generate a sense of individual well-being of persons-in-environment
• Cultures often interlock as individuals form varied backgrounds
come together.
– An Anglo social worker, for example, with a future time perspective
may become annoyed with a Mexican American, present-oriented client
who does not conserve her money to last throughout the month. This
client, in turn, may become irritated with the social worker, who is seen
as taking too much time to collect data before providing a direct service
Multiculturalism Concepts
Ethnic Group
 Subculture within a society
 Distinctive characteristics and traditions associated with categories of race,
national origin, and/or religion.
Ethnic Identity
 Stable inner sense of who a person is.
 Formed by the successful integration of the various experiences of the self into a
coherent self-image
 Forms the basis of a person’s ethnic self-image
Top 15 Reported Ethnic Origins by Canadians, 2002 EDS
Canadian Culture
Circle the statements that represent the values and beliefs of Canadian culture
Multiculturalism Concepts
 Assimilation
Individuals who abandon traditional ways and customs and adopt the new culture
fully
The process of replacing one's first culture with a second culture.
 Acculturation
Individuals who retain their original cultural heritage while learning about and
adapting to new ways, beliefs, and behavioral expectations
The process of acquiring a second culture.
Assimilation or Acculturation?
• Example 1:
• A first generation Italian who lives in an Italian enclave in the United States
may continue to speak just Italian and to follow the norms and mores of his
Italian origins.
• Example 2:
• The granddaughter of a Chinese immigrant has gone to American schools
and will now attend an American college. She spends time primarily with her
American friends, dresses as they do and shares their values and interests.
Assimilation or Acculturation?
• Example 3:
• Nyeri Ncube has been in Canada for 2 years. Since coming to Canada from
Uganda she has married a French Canadian, changed her last name to
LeBlanc. She now speaks fluent french both at home and work.
• Example 1:
– Acculturation
• Example 2:
– Acculturation
• Example 3:
– Assimilation
Minority
The extent of a cultural group’s
power and access to the resources
and opportunities available in a
society.
Ethnic-group Membership
The ways in which
– historical experiences,
– cultural values, and
– world view
influence the way individuals and ethnic
group members understand and experience
– person,
– situations,
– needs,
– problems,
– resources, and
– solutions.
Race
• People who share a more or less distinctive
combination of physical characteristics transmitted by
their ancestors are said to be of the same race.
Please stand up if…
• You have ever been centered out because of the way you
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talk
walk
dress
practice your faith
Affiliate with a certain social, economic, religious, or cultural group
• "How did this make you feel?”
• “Did this experience change you in any way?”
Racism refers to the ideologies of superiority and
negative attitudes involved in judging others solely
on the basis of common physical characteristics,
such as skin color, hair, body size, facial features,
o r l a n g u a g e p a t t e rn s .
• Racism also involves differential and detrimental
treatment of racial group members by individuals and
by social institutions.
To what extent do you think racism is a
serious problem in Canadian society?
The African Experience
• “White” culture, intellect and morality was thought to be much more
superior over the black race
• Many arrived in Canada via the underground railroad; settled in
Nova Scotia and Southwestern Ontario
• When “free” blacks came to Canada, they were promised equal
land and necessities by the British but received none or very little
The African Experience
• In 1850, black Canadians experienced restricted land ownership
and were refused equal education; not allowed in “white” schools
• Segregated schools existed in Nova Scotia until the 1960’s
• Black Canadians forced to settle in segregated communities in
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario
• Africville, NS
Africville, NS
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Part of the City of Halifax, isolated from the rest of the city
Population of about 400 black Canadians; coming from 80 different families
Were all law-abiding, tax paying citizens
Africville soon became home to many dirty industries; a prison, disposal pits,
a city dump and an infectious disease hospital
• The city failed to install sewers, lights, water or roads
Africville, NS
• In 1947, Halifax designated Africville industrial land
• Without consultation with the members of the community, Africville
residents were relocated to slum housing via city dump trucks
• The tight knit community paid taxes but were treated unfairly due to
their race
Africville
BEFORE
We have a key role to play in ensuring that government policies, programs and
services are adapted to the needs of an increasingly diverse population.
Assessing Therapist Identity & Privilege
Therapists’ Racial Identities
• From the foregoing, you may have noticed that we all are responded to as a
representative of our racial group at some point in our lives. It is VERY
IMPORTANT to be able to use this experience to relate to clients that are
different from you.
• Consider your thoughts and feelings regarding yourselves as “racial beings.”
Think about when you first noticed race, how those around you discussed it,
levels of segregation or integration in your history, etc.
• Consider how racial identity develops across groups
Well-being
Well-being is determined by the interaction of physical and mental
health values reflecting general beliefs and sense of desirable
ways of being and behaving.
Health and Culture
List the top 10 MOST livable countries in the World and the top 10 LEAST
livable countries in the World
Most and Least Livable Countries: UN Human Development Index,
20 06
MOST LIVABLE
• Norway
• Iceland
• Australia
• Ireland
• Sweden
• Canada
• Japan
• United States
• Switzerland
• Netherlands
LEAST LIVABLE
• Niger
• Sierra Leone
• Mali
• Burkina Faso
• Guinea-Bissau
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Ethiopia
• Burundi
• Mozambique
Help-seeking attitudes
Help-seeking is reflected
in the client system’s
cultural values about
self-sufficiency, types of
help sought, and
preferred patterns of
problem-solving and
communicating.
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Culture and the Problem Identification/treatment
Process
Who identifies the problem and how
Where to go for services
MH help seeking/first time use of services
Types of MH services used/Other services used
Involvement of family in treatment
Presenting problems/perception of the problem
Therapists’ role
Continued utilization of services
Assessing Racial & Cultural Factors:
A Checklist of Important Identities
Which are important for self/partner?
Family/Community/Friends
Religion or Spiritual Beliefs & Practices
Racial Heritage & Cultural Activities
Country of Origin &/or Migration Experiences
Personality Traits/Unique Personal Style
Job, Finances, or Social Class/Standing
Personal Values
Religion
 “Institutionalized pattern of beliefs, behaviors, and experiences, oriented
toward spiritual concerns, shared by a community and transmitted over time
in traditions.”
 Religious affiliation refers to group membership in a formal institutional
system of religious beliefs and practices.
(Canda & Furman, 1999)
Spirituality
 Search for a sense of meaning, purpose, and moral frameworks for
relating to self, others, and the ultimate reality expressed through
religious and non-religious forms.
Faith and Mystical Experience
Faith
 Personal beliefs and a relationship with a greater being.
Mystical experiences
Transcend the human capacity for thinking and expression and involve
direct, personal encounters with aspects of reality that are beyond the
limits of language and reason to express.
(Canda & Furman, 1999)
The Mystical Experience
• UP TO HERE FOR TUES. SEPT. 25TH/2007
At the operational level of practice method, however,
the social work profession has not yet fully clarified the
role of spirituality and faith in
engagement,
data collection,
assessment,
intervention,
evaluation, and
termination
• In problem-solving situations in which it is appropriate to
address the underlying spiritual nature of the dilemma and
inherent religiously based value conflicts, the social worker first
gains an understanding of the client system’s religious and
Spiritual beliefs, traditions, and ritual practices and then leans
about any related federal laws or court rulings.
• For example,
– the natural hallucinogen of the peyote plant may be used in
Native American ceremonials, animal sacrifices are part of
Santeria faith practices, and religious cults may act to
isolate members from the outside world.
Social Justice
Social justice incorporates social work’s commitment to individual well-being
and the welfare of society and represents the profession's moral
commitment to advocacy on behalf of the poor, dispossessed, oppressed,
and disadvantaged.
Social Pluralism
Expressions of values and behavior that vary along social structures
compromising systems of socialization, social control, social gratification,
and social change.
Socio-economic class
Socio-economic class is a socially constructed perspective that
reflects an understanding of the world, where a person fits within it,
and a distinctive life style.
Socio-economic class affects what persons have available as
choices and what they perceive the choices to be.
(Farley, 1994; Wright, 1985)
Ethnic Reality
Ethnic reality is the socio economic cultural environment that
influences the behaviors and dispositions of individuals, families,
groups, organizations, and communities.
Identify each picture as either: Urban-Rural-Suburban
Identify each picture as either: Urban-Rural-Suburban
Social Pluralism Concepts
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Rural community
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Urban community
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Country or country-like. Rural localities are often defined in terms of
low population density and relative isolation.
Cities or jurisdictions that are highly populated.
Suburban community

Incorporated municipality within a standard metropolitan statistical
area other than a central city.
(Lineberry, 1975)
How might your role as a social worker change if you
were employed at as a mental health care worker in a…
RURAL as opposed to an URBAN area
Socio-Demographic Variability
• Human systems also form complex wholes with diverse functions
that may progress independently of each other. The knowledge
base of the social worker includes theories about the
developmental processes that take place physically, socially,
sexually, cognitively, spiritually, and morally in a person.
Socio-Demographic Variables
 Endowment
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
Genetic traits and characteristics
Basis for persons’ innate mental, physical, and cognitive abilities, and, also,
include persons’ natural gifts, talents, and subsequent developmental abilities.
 Personality

Combination and integration of characteristics and experiences that give a
person his or her unique personhood.
 Developmental stage

Evolving levels or phases of a person’s psychosocial development and
includes physical, mental, social, sexual, cognitive, spiritual, and moral growth.
Are Men and Women Really Different?
Gender Scripts
Class Activity
Name 3 behaviors that are ACCEPTABLE do in a public restroom
Name 3 behaviors that are UNACCEPTABLE to do in a public restroom
Are these different for men and women?
Try the following Online Bathroom Etiquette QUIZ
http://www.expertrating.com/quizzes/Bathroom-Etiquette-Quiz.asp
Socio-Demographic Variables
 Gender roles
 Expected behavior patterns of masculinity and femininity dictated by society.
 Gender identity
 Part of the unchanging core of personality formation.
 Sexism
 Subjugation of one gender to another and refers to the existing attitudes, policies, and
practices that demonstrate this discrimination.
• The predominant patriarchal ideology found in United States
society and in other societies fosters institutional sexism through
which women have long experienced inequality and victimization.
Sexism means the subjugation of one sex to another.
• The traditional gender role imposed on a women as a dependent,
long-suffering, conforming, emotionally nurturing, and sweet
female has not been a satisfying and health promoting role for
many. Women have often felt constricted and ineffective in this role
• They have experienced tensions and conflict that are due to
lack of privilege and power. Some women have internalized
society’s image of themselves and have accepted a
self-concept in which they are helpless, inadequate, and
submissive.
• These women often need help to reject their
negative self-attributes and to become
re-socialized as competent and whole persons.
• There is an increasing recognition of the need for social
workers to help women become consciously aware of how
they have been socialized and to find ways for them to grow
in self-actualization
• As a woman discusses her problems with a social worker,
she may be surprised and supported in learning that other
women have had similar experiences and that, collectively,
they are victims of sexism in society.
Through joining
together, women
have begun to
develop a sense of
empowerment
and to expose the
destructive forces
they experience.
Organized movements
• such as the Suffrage Movement, the Women’s Trade
Union, the National Consumer’s League, and the National
Organization for Women – have greatly contributed to
improving the status of women in U.S. society.
• Men may struggle with accepting changes in the feminine gender
role because such acceptance necessities their letting go of power
and privilege.
• Nevertheless, there are possible advantages for men if the results
of women’s liberation include a change in the demands and
expectations for men in a sexist society
• Men have had to assume the strong, dominant, bread
winning and protector role which has had negative and
sometimes fatal effects on men. They have been expected
to perform with total success at work and at home.
• A man’s occupation has been seen as his primary status
determinant and basic identity. As a result, failure in work is
perceived as failure in personhood for men.
• The drive to succeed has also influenced men’s suicidal actions.
The instruments used by men to commit suicide are more certain to
complete the task successfully than those used by women. Over 70
percent of all completed suicides are committed by men.
Canadian Suicide Rates by Gender and Age 1990-1994
• Being cast in the role of a strong male has restricted men’s freedom
to acknowledge and express emotions. Supportive relationships
have been generally limited to a man’s wife, with few sustained
peer friendships
• Even emotional displays with children have been considered out of
character for a man. The stress and tensions felt by men and left
unexpressed have resulted in stress-relates illnesses and an earlier
death rate for man than for women
• movement to overcome existing sexism in society. As
pointed out by Goldberg, “The social revolutions of recent
years can lessen the male’s time-honored burdens, help
him reclaim denied emotion,
• expand his sensual responsiveness, bring new dimensions
of honesty and depth to his heterosexual relationships, as
well as alert him to the self-destructive compulsions within
him.”
• Contemporary social changes have resulted in a variety of
significant problems for men. These may include problems
in areas such as custody battles, male single parenting, and
fathering after divorce when children remain with their
mothers or when parents have joint custody.
What do you know ?
• Children raised by lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals are more likely
to become gay.
• False
• The majority of child molesters are gay men
• False
• Most trans people identify as lesbians or gay men.
• False
What do you know?
• "Homosexuality'' is unique to humans and is not found elsewhere in nature.
• False
• There are few actual bisexuals; most people will eventually identify as either
completely lesbian/gay or heterosexual.
• False
• Being lesbian or gay is a type of mental illness and can be cured with
appropriate psychotherapy.
• False
What do you know?
• Most trans people seek gender reassignment surgery.
• False
• Bisexual men are largely responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS to
heterosexual women.
• False
• Being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is a personal choice that people make.
• False
What do you know?
• Most transsexuals are trans women (biological men who see themselves as
female).
• False
• Bisexuals are equally attracted to men and women.
• False
• Bisexual people are more promiscuous than heterosexuals or gay men and
lesbians.
• False
What do you know?
• Bisexuals need at least one partner of each gender.
• False
• Providing a young person with information about LGBT people may harm
them or coax them to change their sexuality.
• False
• Places of worship do not allow openly LGBT people to become members of
their congregations.
• False
Sexual Orientation
• A homosexual person has been defined as “one who is motivated in
adult life by a definite preferential erotic attraction to members of
the same sex and who usually (but not necessarily) engages in
overt sexual relations with them”,
Statistics Canada: Sexual orientation, 2003
Statistics Canada, 2003
• Two primary types of homosexuals:
– (1) Transitional – an individual who is basically heterosexual but
engages in homosexual behavior when no one of the opposite sex is
available
• (2) Constitutional – an individual whose sexual orientation toward
the same sex is set at around the ages of 3 to 5 years.
• There area number of tensions, needs, and problems and
individual may experience as a result of being gay or lesbian.
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Public display of affection still a challenge
Cannot publicly acknowledge partner
Social, legal, government – agency discrimination
Severely scrutinized child rearing
Must choose religion/church carefully
Uncomfortable/hostile neighbors
Workplace discrimination
Must exercise care when talking/teaching about LGBT issues
• A knowledgeable and sensitive social worker may assist the
individual in these problematic areas
• For example, as a person begins to recognize an attraction
to members or the same sex or to explore the possibility that
he or she may be homosexual, he or she may experience
strong feelings of fear, confusion, or guilt. For many, there is
no one to turn to for an open, honest discussion about their
questions and concerns
. Some, particularly adolescents, find the internal conflict so
overwhelming that they turn to drugs or suicide. Social workers can
be very helpful as individuals struggle over questions about their
sexual identity or decision to choose or not to choose a gay or lesbian
lifestyle, or to “come out.”
• The number of tensions, needs, and problems and
individual may experience as a result of being gay or
lesbian often requires the help of a knowledgeable and
sensitive social worker may assist the individual in these
problematic and sometimes more or less fatal areas.
• Help may be needed in planning when and how they will share their
decisions with significant persons in their life. Coming out can be
extremely traumatic for a person unless there has been careful
planning with supports available. What is at stake may included the
loss of a job, marriage, children, or self-esteem
• Gay or lesbian persons may also seek help from social
workers because of problems with interpersonal
relationships. Individuals or couples may seek help to
decide about
• improving,
• maintaining, or
• terminating a relationship or lifestyle
• If two gay or lesbian people decide to make a lifelong
commitment to each other, they may ask a social worker to
help them find a way to legitimize their relationship. They
may not know about relationship contracts or joint wills.
Problems and needs may develop after one of the two dies.
The remaining partner may need someone else to help him
or her grieve over the loss of the other.
• Some may want to get help in terms of getting married
and entering into a more religious
• or spiritual commitment that is witnessed by their
close relatives and friends.
A number of institutional, legal,
emotional and medical problems may
emerge.
Institutional problems may
include housing or nursing home
practices that do not permit two nonrelated members to dwell together
• If one partner is in a nursing home or hospital, the other may
not be allowed to visit or make medical decisions for the
institutionalized person without legal documents, such as
durable and medical powers of attorney, because there is
no legal or blood relationship.
• The emotional problems of elderly lesbians and gays may
include feelings of rejection by the gay or lesbian
community and feelings of abandonment or loss after the
death of a partner
• The medical problems of homosexuals at any age may include
sexually transmitted diseases (pharyngeal or anal gonorrhea or
AIDS).
• Lesbian or gay persons may need support and services
from a variety or professionals and other systems. As they
interact with people in diverse settings, they need to be
understood and accepted as unique individuals. Social
workers can assist by locating available, appropriate
resources for gay and lesbian clients.
• The resources needed may include knowledgeable and accepting
physicians, lawyers, clergy, and insurance companies. Gay men
and lesbians also may be enabled to deal with their tensions and
problems through active participation in self-help groups,
supportive networks, and related political action movements.
• For example, counseling sessions or groups led by social
workers for
• wives of gay and bisexual men may help them deal with
such feelings and issues as anger,
• betrayal,
• homophobia,
• sexuality,
• care of children and support
Challenges in Mental and Physical Disability
 Normalization principle suggests that all people, whether
different or not, should be integrated to the maximum extent
possible into the mainstream service delivery system and
that services should promote those personal behaviors and
characteristics that are culturally as normative as possible.
(DeJong, Batavia & McKnew, 1992)
Challenges in Mental and Physical Disability
 Least restrictive environment principle supports normalization beliefs
by shifting the focus from large impersonal institutional settings to
community and family care as the primary environmental settings for
service delivery to people with exceptional physical and mental
needs.
(Seligman & Darling, 1997)
PROVISION OF THE LEAST RESTRICTIVE TYPE OF MENTAL
HEALTH CARE
• Every patient shall have the right to be treated and cared for, as far as possible, in the
community in which he or she lives
• Where treatment takes place in a mental health facility, a patient shall have the right,
whenever possible, to be treated near his or her home or the home of his or her relatives
or friends and shall have the right to return to the community as soon as possible
• Every patient shall have the right to treatment suited to his or her cultural background
• UP TO HERE FOR THURS. OCT 27/07
PROVISION OF THE LEAST RESTRICTIVE TYPE OF MENTAL
HEALTH CARE
• Every patient shall have the right to be treated in the least restrictive environment and with
the least restrictive or intrusive treatment appropriate to the patient’s health needs and the
need to protect the physical safety of others
Challenges in Mental and Physical Disability
 Recovery principle further underscores the deeply personal process
that takes place in coping with health limitations
Caused by mental illness, drug addiction, and deteriorating physical or emotional
functioning
 By documenting that people who are afflicted with such health
problems are able to carry on a rich, satisfying and productive life.
(Anthony, 1993)