Rediscover's Practicum Placement

Improved Essays
Literature Review
My current practicum placement is at ReDiscover Common Ground in Grandview, Missouri. The members (clients) of ReDiscover come from many diverse backgrounds and circumstances. Each member shares at least one common ground, the fact that they all are working towards healthy living with mental illness. Due to the impact that mental health disorders have on each individual many members of ReDiscover are unable to obtain jobs or maintain healthy relationships with others. The staff at ReDiscover works with all members to help them live independently and successfully by coping with their symptoms. As a practicum student I have been doing most of my work with the Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment (IDDT) group. The members I work
…show more content…
However, ethnic minorities are less likely to seek treatment for mental health issues in comparison with the majority (Gopalkrishnan & Babacan, 2015). Furthermore, minorities who receive mental health care are more likely to access primary care or emergency rooms rather than be treated by a mental health professional (Kohn-Wood & Hooper, 2014). Hesitation to seek treatment may be influenced by cultural views and stereotypes of mental health and/or mental health professionals. The stereotypes about treatment for mental health held by minority groups may not be so far fetched, “Many of the assumptions of what is normal and what is abnormal that are central to Western therapeutic approaches are based in Western, middle-class constructions that may not be valid when working across cultures” (Gopalkrishnan & Babacan, 2015, p. 7). Additionally, when health practitioners or social workers have biases or stereotypes of the individuals they work with the effectiveness of their provided services is compromised (Huff & Kline, 1999). It is important to remember that “…not all approaches to culturally sensitive practices are sensitive to the diversity of members of the same ethnic minority group” (Chau, Yu, & Tran, 2011, p. …show more content…
Individuals can be culturally competent when serving clients who are similar to them but may struggle with working with clients who are different (Brach & Fraserirector, 2000). “The diversity even within racial or ethnic groups and the complexity of associated subcultures make cultural competency training appropriate for all health system staff, including members of minority groups” (Brach & Fraserirector, 2000, p. 185). Staff must learn to acknowledge their own biases and stereotypes and understand that generalizing their clients will be detrimental to the client’s

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Opening Statement Summary and Main Points: (Brooke Edwards) The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Lia, a young Hmong girl suffered and grew sicker from epilepsy. Her parents saw this disease not as epilepsy but as a spirit leaving her body. Because of the conflicts in cultures between Lia’s Parents and the doctors, Lia was not properly treated and medicated. If she had been it is possible that she wouldn’t have gotten worse.…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Cultural competence and diversity are very important. According to Parker (2015) it builds understanding of our unique populations and helps us to develop innovative ways to reach out and care for patients. It is with a certain inevitability that the United States and its demographic move towards a more culturally diverse population. It is then imperative for health care to adjust to meet demands of the people. It starts from the top, the leaders and the managers, it moves down to the supervisors, then the rank and file accordingly.…

    • 104 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Failure to understand cultural competence and to appropriately respond to cultural disparities can cause implications of non-compliance and decreased satisfaction of the clients. The goal of cultural competence is to be able to provide cultural-sensitive care that is respectful and receptive without compromising the patient’s spiritual, emotional and physical…

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Practicing “cultural humility” is the key. Dr. Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-Garcia describe cultural humility as a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique. The starting point for such an approach is not an examination of the client’s belief system, but rather having health care/service providers give careful consideration to their assumptions and beliefs that are embedded in their own understandings and goals of their encounter with the client. Training for cultural competency, with its emphasis on promoting understanding of the client with her/his ‘own culture’, has often neglected consideration of the providers’ worldview. In practicing cultural humility, rather than learning to identify and respond to sets of culturally specific traits, the culturally competent provider develops and practices a process of self-awareness and…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Cultural Competency

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Pages

    As a person who grew up in Mexico, and moved to the United States 6 years ago, I believe my cultural competence has allowed me to develop personal characteristics that will enable me to understand patients from any culture. I appreciate and respect the multiple dimensions of diversity, recognize and embrace perspectives that are different that mine, and have learned to implement these in my daily life. My experience volunteering at a free clinic has allowed me to interact with patients from different underserved communities, but also with other volunteers and medical students from cultures different than mine. From this experience, I have been able to demonstrate I have the attributes to be part of a diverse group. I have developed competencies…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    As healthcare workers, we want to provide the best quality care to all the patients we serve regardless of their ethnic makeup or culture. People of different ethnic backgrounds and cultures have their own perceptions about illness. As health care workers, we must be able to identify and be aware of our biases of others so when we practice and provide care to those that are different, we can practice in unbiased ways. Administering culture competency tests to health care workers is one way administrators can ensure that staff is properly trained and prepared to service…

    • 97 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A growing clinical issue related to access to and utilization of mental heath care is stigma and health disparities, specifically related to different race backgrounds. The American Psychological Association (APA) declares the need for “increasing the number of racial and ethnic minority mental/behavioral health professionals and creating a culturally competent workforce to meet the needs of the expanding minority population of the United States” (American Psychological Association (APA)). Not only does the current healthcare workforce not reflect the diversity of our country, but also minority groups lack comprehensive and easy access to the same, quality mental health care of those in the white majority (APA). The growing unequal access to…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction Racial disparity refers to differences that may or may not be connected to discrimination. Rawal, Anderson, Romansky, and Lyons admit that there are racial disparities in the delivery of behavioral health services (2008). Health services disparity refers to “differences in treatment or access not justified by the differences in health status or preference of the groups” (Alegria, Vallas, & Pumariega, 2010, p. 760). Generally speaking psychiatric problems have been undertreated in the United States (US) but for racial/ethnic minorities their rates of even lower for mental health treatment compared to their counter parts White Americans (Kohn-Wood & Hooper, 2014).…

    • 1310 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Diversity in Health Care As the ethnic and racially diverse populations of the United States continue to expand, so does the need for cultural competence. Health care providers are continually challenged to deliver care that meets the physiologic and cultural needs of the patient. In view of this fact, initiatives to increase and improve the awareness and effectiveness of cultural competency is at the forefront of health care initiatives (Purnell, 2013). Application of universally accepted approaches to culturally competent care must be adopted by all health care providers no matter what their role (Douglas, et al.,2014) The purpose of this paper is to explore how the theory, framework and domains described in the Purnell Model of Cultural…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Throughout the course so far, the topic of culturally competent care and how to care for the many cultures in our society is becoming ever more prevalent. The subject of culturally competent care is so relevant in today’s society, as many immigrants are coming over to the United States for a better life. An important aspect of that better life is to provide the best culturally competent care to each and every patient. Upon observing the local hospital near me, I found out how the CLAS standards, developed by the Office of Minority Health, are being implemented into the organization. Upon entering the health care facility, I noticed that the hospital had a very warmhearted and welcoming atmosphere to it.…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Depression Treatment

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Retention in Depression Treatment among Ethnic and Racial Minority Groups Alain Ricoh Flores Contra Costa College Abstract A study that includes the focus in the ethnic-racial minorities with a sample of 561 participants in the United States such as the African American group is primary subject of the research. The study portrayed the premature discontinuation of psychiatric treatment among ethnic-racial minorities is a persistent concern. But the previous researches that was focused on identifying the underlying factors associated with ethnic-racial disparities in depression treatment has been limited by the scarcity of national samples with adequate representations of the minority groups and especially the non-English speakers.…

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Cultural Competence Healthcare is becoming diverse with the patient population from many different race, cultures and ethnicity. Nurses take care of patients from many different types of heritage and background, therefore we need to be culturally competent while providing care. By taking the Cultural Diversity Self-Assessment (IllinoisCTE, n.d.), I was able to determine my own beliefs toward different cultures. The assessment tool is comprised of a one to five rating scale in regards to how strongly I agree with a question.…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Cultural competency brings about the core of high quality in patient-centered care as it directly impacts the delivery of health care services. Additionally, delivering culturally competent health care improves patients’ satisfaction, quality of care, contributes to staff retention, and increases job satisfaction. On the other hand, lack of cultural competency in health care contributes to reduced patient compliance, increased health disparities, and poor patients outcomes regardless of the systems available and quality of service (Butler et.al, 2016). Health care organizations can use actions such as communication, sharing operating procedure and organizational structure, recruitment and outreach, diversity training, and vision and context to bring about cultural competence and enhance effective treating of patients from all cultural groups. The paper will discuss cultural competence in health care; discuss specific actions that healthcare organizations can utilize for cultural competence and how these actions…

    • 1530 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Emic Approach

    • 228 Words
    • 1 Pages

    The classical approach to multicultural counselling laid an emphasis on an emic approach. This approach came up with the growth of cross-cultural counselling in the early 1960 and early 1970’s and was meant to help people of racial minorities. As pine and colleagues (1972) argued, clients from minority groups were not adequately served by mental health establishment. [Das, 1995]. However, the approach was mainly culture specific and it had endorsed on techniques that has raised lots of concerns.…

    • 228 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    TITLE OF YOUR PAPER The US is on target to become one of the most diverse nations in the world, with a projection of minorities making up 57% of the population by 2060. (Loftin, Hartin, Branson, and Reyes, 2013, page 10) This astounding number leaves many questions for culturally competent health care.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays