Personal Work Plan for Culturally Competent Social Work Practice 1

Personal Work Plan for Culturally Competent Social Work Practice

Darice Collier
Wayne State University














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Social Work is an occupation that is strictly about having communication skills
effectively and very precise when dealing with people. Communication skills are not only
defined how effectively a social worker can speak to a client, but how to convey important
information with clients with different ethnicity, race, culture, religion, values, and beliefs. A
professional skilled social worker will know what to say to someone who are in the same
category and clients that are not. We live in a society where ethnicity have a significant impact
upon the different interaction between people, so it is the social workers job to have clients see
pass that when working in the profession of social work. There are many skills that are needed
to be a great asset in the field of social work.
One of the most important skills that are needed to be able to work competent with
social work practice is to know vital information about all ethnicities. This skill will enable a
worker to understand and relate to all the different cultures and have the skills to help clients
with a diverse background. The level of competence I had before I started the class was a good
amount. I know the importance of being knowledgeable of ethnicities and love to learn about
the different beliefs and cultures that people have. I am the type of person that loves to learn
about people that has a different background from me. I do not feel that my culture is better
and that my culture is the only one I should know about. I am happy that I am not ethnocentric
because I will be missing out on knowing interesting facts about cultures.
The views that I have that shaped my perspective about my culture and other cultures
are the experiences that I have had with people and what I have read about both. I have more
views and experience with people that have similar culture with me because I have hands on
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experience with being a part of the culture. The experiences that I have that shaped my views
about my culture are the experiences that I have with my family, friends, and people at my
school. The experiences that I have that shaped my views about other cultures are the
experiences that I have with my friends, people at my school, and people I met while I was out
doing daily activities.
One interesting idea that is in the text that we read is about how people should view
the United States of people as if we are different flowers in the field. Like in the field of
flowers, people in our communities often have difficulties interacting with each other
(Appleby, Colon, & Hamilton, 2007, p. xi). Even though the flowers are diverse in the field, the
flowers all look beautiful together. Diversity is a beautiful thing, just like the diverse flowers
that may be in a field. If people were to look at diversity as being a beauty and not negative,
then the world could be a better place. The diversity of people being used in comparison to
flowers was the first time I learned about it and thought it was a great perspective about
diversity.
There are many succinctly things I learned that were interesting while participating in
this course that was meaningful to me. My favorite chapter is chapter five about the dynamics
of oppression and discrimination. Oppression and discrimination are two of the most injustice
actions that can be done towards anyone. Oppression and discrimination are two issues that
social workers try to diminish for their clients. A primary construction in Western cultural
thought is the belief that superior should control the inferior (Appleby et al., 2007, p. 61). The
superior is defined as the people with a lot of money that are making double the minimum
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wage and the people that are considered inferior are the people that are only making minimum
wage. There should not be any thoughts or ideas that someone is inferior to anyone based
upon income and anything that considers someone to be in the category of inferior. Its sad
that oppression is common elements of institutional power, economic control, violence,
distortion and invisibility. (Appleby et al., 2007, p. 61).
The clients that I would believe to be challenging are the people that do not want to
open up to me and tell me vital information so I will be able to help them. I would expect that
some of my clients will have different backgrounds from mine and may judge that I lack the
ability to serve them before giving me a chance. The clients that will be beneficial to me are the
people that try to help me understand their perspective, so I can be able to assist them. I
would like to learn about more groups and cultures to be able to help them more effectively in
the field of social work. One of the cultures that interest me is the Native Americans, which is a
great diverse group. I want to know what are their beliefs, values, religion, and culture. I also
would like to know the roles that each person have in the family. I do not think there will be
any group of people that will be difficult to work with. I think it is not about an ethnicity or
culture of people that will be hard to assist, just the people that are racist or stereotype
towards African Americans. Some of my clients will probably judge the color of my skin before
they can see the content of my character that will be credential for assisting. It is not always
people that have a different background than my own that might give me a hard time to do my
job. It is a possibility that there will be African Americans that will assume that I am not capable
to assist due to me being African American.
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Action Steps That Are Feasible for Increasing Cultural Competence
1. Have adequate knowledge about individual cultures.
2. Research cultures and have a better understanding.
3. Be sensitive to cultural differences.
4. Awareness of the patterns of oppression and discrimination of cultures.
5. Communication skills to speak to them effectively.











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References

Appleby, G., Colon, E., & Hamilton J. (2007). Diversity, Oppression, and Social functioning:
Person-In-Environment Assessment and Intervention (3
rd
ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon
Course