Innovations in Delivering Culturally Sensitive Social Work Services

Challenges for Practice and Education

Innovations in Delivering Culturally Sensitive Social Work Services: Challenges for Practice and Education is for human service professionals and educators who are seeking innovative ways to make their practice and service delivery more culturally appropriate and their education and training more relevant. As Editor Yvonne Asamoah explains, “There has never been a more critical time for social work practitioners, educators, and policy makers to critique their programs, service delivery systems, and curricula for cultural relevance. Apart from federal and state mandates which require agencies to demonstrate how they are preparing workers to deliver culturally sensitive services, demographic shifts and increasing economic hardships are continually producing a more diverse clientele in need of service. . . . Being sensitive to the needs of the local community and the subtle, but significant, ethnic differences within them is critical and has important implications for training, policy, and practice.”

The contributors describe actual models put into practice in the U.S. and Canada--analyzing the results and debating the issues of diversity and cultural sensitivity in regard to the social work profession. Innovations in Delivering Culturally Sensitive Social Work Services gives you an inside look at different approaches, programs, and studies, including:

• an innovative demonstration project designed to deliver social services to people from different cultures in Canada

• an eight-step communication process model that social work agency supervisors and training units may use to help workers become more effective multicultural practitioners

• a study on the incidents of misunderstanding between social workers from a Western-oriented society and those from a non-Western society in terms of culture shock

• the results of a statewide survey in Nevada on attitudes of social workers in relation to diversity, using a modified Multicultural Counseling Inventory to measure awareness, knowledge, and skills

• the four major multicultural issues considered critical to the delivery of health and mental health, and preventative and treatment services to Latino clients

• an examination of the issue of diversity in the workplace using the university and schools of social work as examples

  Other important contributions in Innovations in Delivering Culturally Sensitive Social Work Services include a unique look at the topic of cultural diversity and sensitivity from a management perspective--introducing you to the concept of the ‘globally aware’social work manager. Practical suggestions to assist you in achieving global awareness are provided through a “Global Problem Analysis Worksheet” including issues of staffing, hiring and retention of foreign born staff; service planning and organization to meet the needs of immigrants, refugees, and other international populations; staff development; and broader organizational concerns of information systems and policymaking. Two other chapters directly relate to the critical issues raised by Paige in his comprehensive 1986 work on cross-cultural orientation and applications. These chapters will help you view your own cross-cultural encounters with both clients and peers in a broader, theoretical context.