Cultural Competence

Over the past year or more I have been reflecting on what it means to actual be culturally competent. The Code of Ethics states that "Social workers should have a knowledge base of their clients' cultures and be able to demonstrate competence in the provision of services that are sensitive to clients' cultures and to difference among people and cultural groups". 

I'm not here to talk about the cultural competence vs. cultural humility, but for the record I appreciate the semantics of cultural humility. What I've been reflecting on is how do we "do" cultural competency? How do social workers shift their practice to provide services in a culturally competent way? 

I've been talking to other social workers about this. Now I have thoughts on this, but I am still trying to put those thoughts into words... so here are a few thoughts. 

1. Seeing a person as an expert of their own experience. 

2. Recognizing our own bias. 

3. Exploring values. 

This third bullet point really got me thinking recently. Exploring and clarifying values is a critical part of therapy, in my humble opinion. Values are often based in a client's cultural upbringing so helping a client to explore and clarify their values helps the social worker learn more about a client's culture. 

This could be very common knowledge, but it was light a lightbulb went off in my head. When we learn our client's values we get a look into their culture and what is meaningful to them. It also helps us to avoid approaching cultural competence as a cookie cutter method. Black/African American people are not a monolith; Latinx people come from a host of cultures. We can know about culture, but listening to a client, positioning them as the expert of their experience, and working with them to explore their values are strategies for competent practice.