Cultural Competency Overview
Cultural competency is a set of academic and interpersonal skills that assists individuals in increasing their understanding and appreciation of cultural differences and similarities within, among, and between groups (Woll, 1996). It requires a willingness and an ability to draw on community-based values, traditions, and customs and to work with knowledgeable persons of and from the community in developing focused interventions, communications, and other supports. A culturally competent program is defined by CSAT (1994a) as one that demonstrates sensitivity and understanding of cultural differences in treatment and program design, implementation, and evaluation. Within the treatment setting, cultural competency is a fundamental component that helps individuals develop trust as well as an understanding of the way members of different cultural groups define health, illness, and health care (Gordon, 1994).
Substance abuse treatment providers may use their understanding of the client and the client’s cultural context to develop a culturally appropriate assessment, identify problems, and choose appropriate treatment strategies for the client. A culturally competent model of treatment acknowledges the client’s cultural strengths, values, and experiences while encouraging behavioral and attitudinal change. Treatment services that are culturally responsive are characterized by the following:
• Staff knowledge of the client’s first language
• Staff sensitivity to the cultural nuances of the client population
• Staff backgrounds representative of those of the client population
• Treatment modalities that reflect the cultural values and treatment needs of the client population
• Representation of the client population in decisionmaking and policy implementation.
These aspects alone do not constitute cultural competency, nor do they automatically create a culturally competent system. Culturally competent systems include both professional behavioral norms for treatment staff and the organizational norms that are built into the organization’s mission, structure, management, personnel, program design, and treatment protocols. In other words, culturally competent systems need to implement cultural competency in attitudes, practices, policies, and structures (Mason, 1995).
Interpreting behavior without considering its cultural context can lead to poor, sometimes detrimental, treatment outcomes. The covert prejudice of the treatment staff and language and cultural differences undermine efforts to help clients recover from substance abuse (CSAT, 1999b). However, if practitioners are to move from accommodation to inclusion in their helping practices, they must alter practices to meet the needs of their clients.
Assimilation and Acculturation
Assimilation and acculturation are key concepts in cultural competency. The extent of a person’s assimilation or acculturation influences individual behavior and may affect the treatment outcome. When working with LGBT people from minority populations, providers must assess their level of acculturation and assimilation.
• Assimilation is adaptation to a new culture by taking on a new identity and abandoning the old cultural identity.
• Acculturation refers to accommodation to the rules and expectations of the majority culture without entirely giving up cultural identity.
The four interpersonal styles represented below may be exhibited by clients in treatment and should be assessed by counselors during substance abuse treatment (Bell, 1981). These styles are fluid, meaning individuals can move among them depending on the context or stage of their development or both.
Assimilated individuals consciously or subconsciously reject their culture of origin in favor of their adopted culture. These clients may resist placement in a group with clients of their own ethnicity or may prefer a clinician from their adopted culture.
Bicultural, or multicultural, individuals are proud of their cultures and can function in, fulfill their needs through, and be proud of the dominant culture. Their emotional, educational, economic, and spiritual needs are usually fulfilled in a diverse, integrated living environment that honors two (or more) cultures. A bicultural or multicultural client is likely to be comfortable in any clinical setting with relative ease. However, one of the difficulties of this interpersonal style is cultural or racial schizophrenia (Bell, 1981): the feeling of not belonging to either community. These clients face special challenges that may need to be addressed in treatment.
Culturally immersed individuals have rejected mainstream culture, and their emotional and spiritual needs are met exclusively in their ethnic community or in the gay community. The effectiveness of their treatment may depend on the ability of the provider to be supportive as clients work through issues related to being a person from a minority group.
Traditional individuals are defined as carriers of the community ethos. They neither overtly accept nor reject their ethnic identity. Traditional persons have most of their emotional, spiritual, and, to some degree, educational needs met through their ethnic community and have limited contact with the dominant culture or any outside communities. Their economic needs are met primarily in the context of the majority culture and sometimes involve power imbalances that increase their distrust of other groups. For traditional individuals, entering into a mainstream treatment program is usually a frighteningly foreign experience that calls for sensitivity by treatment staff.
The heterogeneity of ethnic culture emphasizes the need for providers to appreciate clients’ cultural context and individuality. This emphasis allows for more culturally appropriate interventions and focuses on the importance of matching client and provider according to interpersonal styles rather than ethnicity alone.