Some time ago, I was engaged as a social worker in Canada where I performed very stressful nursing tasks. The demanding work coupled with the view that the work presented enormous strain and burnout made me gradually unsuccessful in my duties, which turned me into being very hostile towards my fellow workmates. If I were to go back as a crisis interventionist, I would feel resourceful and humbled to intervene in the same crisis that I experienced. However, I would not assume my personal experience to be the same as that of the other social workers, but I would attempt to determine whether there are any cultural biases involved.
Unlike in the past, where societies worked mainly within a unilingual perspective, the shifting of our society today makes it essential for the counseling vocation to take a practical position on cultural diversity. Counseling advances that function along ethnic and countrywide lines support a well-built multicultural perspective. The application of the multicultural counseling approach helps to eradicate the further effects of the delivery of emotional, educational, and health services for the linguistic and ethnic minorities (Würtz, 2005). Culturally trained counselors have an understanding of their social impact upon others and are aware of how their style may contradict or facilitate the counseling of all members, whether racial or ethnic minority.
Crisis interventionists should not make any pre-judgments or assumptions before hearing the actual causes of the crisis. Assuming that individuals will reach an agreement within their groups or tribes is wrong; judging and confining people from their own cultures before understanding the cultures will lead to the failure of the consensus (Roberts & Everly Jr, 2006). Interventionists should make efforts to improve their understanding of the perceptions and stereotypes of cultures and groups of the people in crisis. Crisis interventionists should assume that the crisis is mainly personal instead of being part of a larger reference group, tribe, or ethnic community.
A focused multicultural approach concentrates on the noticeable and ethnic minorities by developing a 3 dimension model where most of the multicultural counseling skills are structured (Roberts & Everly Jr, 2006). The 3 dimension model emphasizes the counselors’ awareness of their values and prejudices, understanding the universal view of culturally different clients, and formulating suitable intervention strategies and practices to be used in counseling. In this regard, multicultural-oriented counselors understand how race, culture, and ethnicity may influence individuality development, career choices, expression of emotional disorders, and the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of various counseling techniques as crisis intervention strategies.
Culture comprises studied means of acting, feeling, and thinking rather than biologically regulated ways (Leavitt, 2010). A high context culture has persons who have had close relationships for many years. Attributable to these relationships, many features of their behavior are not made precise, and they are united to the group based on individual worth and self-esteem. The group members are tied to the culture for a long time because of the rigid boundaries in the culture and long-term connections.
Cultural ecology is vital in determining the customs of an area and is thus essential in handling crisis among diverse cultures. However, in the long run, cultural ecology has a narrow role in settling crisis between cultures because ecology and society are on a diverse evolutionary area and the capacity to affect one another is reliant on their structuring. Additionally, the fast changing occasions and environment make cultural ecology unreliable as a significant aspect in resolving cultural crisis (Arredondo & Toporek, 2004).
References
Arredondo, P., & Toporek, R. (2004). Multicultural counseling competencies= ethical practice. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 26(1), 44-55.
Leavitt, R. (2010). Physical Therapy and Cultural Competence in the Global Community. Cultural Competence: A Lifelong Journey to Cultural Proficiency, 203.
Roberts, A. R., & Everly Jr, G. S. (2006). A meta-analysis of 36 crisis intervention studies. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 6(1), 10.
Würtz, E. (2005). A cross-cultural analysis of websites from high-context cultures and low-context cultures. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(1), 13.