Cultural Competence

Paper Summary:

Cultural competence is the integration and transformation of knowledge about individuals and groups of people into specific standards, policies, practices, and attitudes used in appropriate cultural settings to increase the quality of services, thereby producing better outcomes. The author of this research proposal contends that cultural competence is becoming a necessary function and skill for all those dealing with social and health services and proposes to analyze the current perception of cultural competence on the part of screeners and emergency response social workers in the Santa Clara County system. The author also reviews current literature on the subject.

From the Paper:

"The evolving concept of Cultural Competence is an area of reformation that is changing the delivery of many aspects of health and social work services. The delivery of social work services, especially in periods of client and family duress can and usually do place a screener or an emergency response social worker in a position that requires rapid response and decision making, regarding the best interest of the clients and the state. It is for this reason and, many others that those who specifically deal with situations that require rapid and appropriate response must enlist cultural competence not as a thought process or a set of ideas but almost as a second hand and integrated pattern of behavior in the system and the individual. Cultural competence is essential to the development of social workers and social work systems that are responsive and capable of dealing with the results of social and cultural discrimination, poverty, inadequate housing and even more blatant discrimination."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Galambos, C. M. (2003). Moving Cultural Diversity toward Cultural Competence in Health Care. Health and Social Work, 28(1), 3.
• Green, J. (1999) Cultural Awareness In Human Services: A Multi Ethnic Approach. 3rd Ed. Boston. MA: Allyn and Bacon.
• National Association of Social Workers. (2001). NASW standards for cultural competence in social work practice. Washington, DC: Author. Synopsis available at: http://www.socialworkers.org/sections/credentials/cultural_comp.asp
• Nybell, L. M., & Gray, S. S. (2004). Race, Place, Space: Meanings of Cultural Competence in Three Child Welfare Agencies. Social Work, 49(1), 17.
• Walker, R., & Staton, M. (2000). Multiculturalism in Social Work Ethics. Journal of Social Work Education, 36(3), 449.

More papers on Cultural Competence:

• Term Paper # 127761 : "Purnell's Model for Cultural Competence"
• Research Paper # 120670 : "Assessment of Cultural Competence"
• Analytical Essay # 118732 : "Cultural Competence in Health Care"

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