>>Cultural Responsiveness; An Opportunity for Increased Effectiveness

Email the Cultural Issues Program Administrator with your questions, comments, or suggestions.

Diversity in the broadest sense means any issue on which there can be differences, in human beings, that can produce misunderstandings of groups that exhibit the diversity. The purpose of this web site is to reshape the commonly misconstrued idea of "Cultural diversity" as a racial or ethnic domain, and to broaden that concept to include the many ways in which culture can be defined.

Often, when the subject of Cultural Diversity and Responsiveness is raised, there is a collective groan from many people. Refrains of "Why can't we just treat people like people?", "This just means 'special treatment' for them.", and similar comments tend to pepper the emotional landscape.

This site is devoted to defining, enhancing, implementing, and evaluating the incorporation of cultural responsiveness into the daily functioning of treatment providers; from various disciplines. Clinicians, and other members of the provider community have an ethical responsibility to make every reasonable effort to provide, "culturally congruent" care to all who enter their system of care.

According to Nelba Chavez, retired SAMSHA Administrator, in a report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA), entitled Cultural Issues In Substance Abuse Treatment, "Building on the individual's cultural strengths and values is critical to the success of substance abuse treatment. Cultural competency is not a euphemism for translated materials or someone who can speak a second language. It is, however, the delivery of services that are rooted in an understanding of and respect for the patient's needs, cultural values and environment."

H. Westley Clark, MD, JD, MPH, and the Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) further explains, "Substance abuse is a massive public health problem. It has been CSAT's experience that the treatment programs that succeed with these vulnerable populations are those that recognize the importance of being attuned to the culture of their patients."

http://www.samsha.gov/PRESS/99/99070nr.htm

Characteristics of Culturally competent services include, but are not limited to:

• Staff sensitivity to the cultural nuances of the "consumer" group
• Treatment practices that reflect the cultural values and treatment needs of the "consumer" group
• Staff from backgrounds that represent those of the consumer group
• Staff knowledge of the "language", and other linguistic aspects, of the consumer group

* Representation of the "consumer" into decision-making and policy
implementation activities. 1.

1. Retrieved 11.21.01 from SAMSHA Press Release on the World Wide Web: http://www.samsha.gov/PRESS/99/99070nr.htm

Cultural Issues-

The establishment of an identity, an "Individualized definition of self", is one of the tasks that must be accomplished in order for an individual to achieve a healthy level of functioning. On the road to completing this developmental task, the individual "…chooses, explores, tries on, discards, reshapes, and ultimately develops a unique sense of individuality." Identity is the way an individual senses who he or she is. Erik H. Erikson, who is well renowned in the field of human development, defined identity as: "…a subjective sense of an invigorating sameness and continuity…a sense of being active and alive."

Ethnic identity refers specifically to an individual's identification with ancestry or a racial group. It provides a sense of belonging, and "historical continuity", and is an essential human need. Among subordinate groups, including communities of color, awareness of ethnic identity and/or cultural differences tends to occur earlier than among the dominant groups. NIDA supported research suggests that infusing cultural responsiveness into all treatment programs can make these interventions more effective.

Cultural identity may include, but is much more than just race, ethnicity, religion, and/or sexual orientation. Cultural identity refers to the ways in which an individual relates, psychologically, to the values, symbols, and common histories that identify him or her as a member of a distinct group. Cultural identities may form around age, physical ability, political affiliation, or any of a myriad of circumstances. For members of majority/dominant groups, this cultural identity is likely to be validated and positively reinforced. Members of minority/subdominant groups, on the other hand, may often be subjected to ridicule, minimization, or other negative portrayals.

The list of Cultural Groups" presented on this site, as with any other listing, is not intended to be definitive. In fact, I strongly encourage you, the reader, to list as many other cultural groupings as you can. I challenge you further to determine how many of these groups you can claim an affiliation with. That sort of activity will contribute much to a broadened, and more accurate, concept of cultural diversity. The following web site is an example of this defining activity:
http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/education/multi/activities/circlesofself_handout.html

Self Evaluation and Role