The purpose of this blog is to analyze potential challenges for assessment in my field education experience at Vatsalya Adult Medical Daycare Center and discuss personal action plans that might be implemented to address assessment. Assessment allows the social worker to empower, protect, and support diverse individuals. Thus, it is important to find a balance between a client’s needs and a social worker’s abilities to deal with the issues.
I regularly encounter diverse elderly clients during my field education experience, and the assessment of these individuals presents cultural and linguistic challenges. The clients at Vatsalya have Indian, Hispanic, African American, and Chinese backgrounds, have significant cultural differences. The potential barriers to culturally-competent practice are general assumptions about a client’s culture and shared experiences, disregard to the role of culture in determining behavior, and misunderstanding of words’ implicit meanings (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2018). Therefore, some of the strategies I use during psychosocial assessments may be ineffective because I face the challenge of considering cultural differences and implicit messages and depend on my personal worldview and professional experience.
Additionally, some clients do not speak English, so I need the assistance of an aide who translates the conversations. The problem of working with the language interpreter is that some details and meanings crucial for the assessment might be lost in translation. It is also difficult to maintain eye contact and use visual clues for non-verbal communication when the third party serves as a mediator. For example, during the session with a Chinese-speaking immigrant woman, I asked about her relationships with the family to evaluate her behavioral and emotional health state and needs. She complained that her children who grew up in the U.S. were disrespectful because they brought her to the center. I could not provide proper advice immediately and nodded to express understanding, which did not console the client. I learned that according to the Chinese tradition, family members are expected to care for seniors who stay at the family home, while nodding was a sign of respect rather than agreement in the culture.
Based on the challenges identified above, several action plans can be considered to address the assessment. Cultural competence can be achieved through continuous learning and critical reflection (Savaya, 2012). To understand the individual in the environment, I should ask culturally-competent questions and critically analyze the replies (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2018). I may also participate in cross-cultural training, as it improves cultural competence, awareness, sensitivity, and appropriateness (Danso, 2018). Clients’ spirituality and values should be acknowledged as sources of strength. Regarding the problem of interpreter use, Westlake and Jones (2017) suggest that audio recordings of interpreter-mediated sessions might be utilized to analyze the situation and assess the challenges of a particular individual. In the case of the Chinese woman, I felt that the client should be grateful for her family’s involvement as they referred her to Vatsalya. Recording the conversation as a means of critical reflection might help me realize my actual theory-in-use guiding my professional responses in contrast to the espoused theory that reflects my perceived values (Savaya, 2012). I might employ the technique to provide counseling for my culturally diverse clients and avoid the gaps in understanding due to the use of a translating mediator.
To summarize, cultural differences and language barriers represent potential challenges in social work assessment. I encounter challenges while working with diverse senior clients due to the use of an interpreter aide and culture-specific problems or needs. Thus, it is essential to integrate cultural competence and record interpreter-moderated sessions for critical reflection and analysis of a client’s situation, behavior, and needs.
References
Danso, R. (2018). Cultural competence and cultural humility: A critical reflection on key cultural diversity concepts. Journal of Social Work,18(4), 410–430.
Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hull, G. H., Jr. (2018). Understanding generalist practice (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Savaya, R., & Gardner, F. (2012). Critical reflection to identify gaps between espoused theory and theory-in-use. Social Work, 57(2), 145–154.
Westlake, D., & Jones, R. K. (2017). Breaking down language barriers: A practice-near study of social work using interpreters. The British Journal of Social Work, 48(5). 1388–1408.