Respond to at least two of your colleagues who made a different recommendation than you did. Elaborate on their cultural adaptation with the group they identified. For example, you might discuss a merit or limitation of the cultural adaptation that your colleague proposed, or you might suggest an alternative application.
1-ebony-
Using one of the participant quotes in the Findings section of the Matheson et al. study, analyze it by first identifying the main themes in the quote.
“All my life I have a hard time to believe in people and [my GACW] always believes me . . . We discuss a lot of stuff . . . like what you do for today, how my situation might explain that it’s [gambling] still a big problem [and] it’s affect [on] my life, but [my GACW] never push me, like really push me, like you need to sit down—no, not like that [Laugh]. [Our sessions are] more like for my opinion, talk[ing] with [a] good friend. (304)” (Matheson et al., 2022)
Provide an interpretation of the quote (what is the speaker saying?).
The speaker was saying that his GACW allowed him to control the pace of the therapy sessions. The speaker was explaining how even though gambling his is major problem, his GACW allows him to express all of his problems and concerns and never seem to rush him to reach his therapeutic goals.
Discuss how this would specifically inform one intervention recommendation for social work practice with clients. Your recommendation can be on the micro, mezzo, or macro level (choose one).
On the micro level, the social worker can focus on case management when working with the client. Assessing the client’s problem at a holistic perspective can help the social worker assess the client’s needs and in every area the client is struggling. Building rapport and a safe therapeutic space is important in the counseling session.
Next, explain how you would adapt the practice recommendation that you identified so that it is culturally sensitive and relevant for a diverse cultural group (e.g., African American, Latinx, Asian American, or indigenous communities). Select only one group.
Applying case management in the Asian community means a social worker needs to make sure that there are culturally component and culture sensitive to the Asian community beliefs and traditions when connecting them to resources and implementing activities during the interventions stage.
Choose a surface structure or deep structure adaptation that Fennig reviewed and provide two strategies for application with your selected group. Be as specific as you can, using citations to support your ideas.
At the practice level, social workers may adapt interventions so they involve existing support systems such as family and peers (Fennig, 2021). Using systems theory to see how the client interact with systems around her/him is important since her/his culture has beliefs when it comes to opening up to people and using certain resources. Also, getting an interpreter will benefit the therapeutic experience by allowing the client to feel connect by someone who can understand their native language (Fennig, 2021).
2-morgan-
Using one of the participant quotes in the Findings section of the Matheson et al. study, analyze it by first identifying the main themes in the quote.
“I’ve shared stuff with my gambling addiction case worker (GACW) that I’ve probably never shared with anybody. . . my GACW made me feel comfortable, like my GACW is listening (Matheson et al., 2022, p. 7). The main themes in the quote are the client’s relationship with the case worker, how the relationship felt, and how the rapport positively impacted the client in feeling comfortable enough to disclose information (Matheson et al., 2022).
Interpret the quote (what is the speaker saying?).
The speaker is saying how important the relationship with his case worker was for him to open up about his issues and feel comfortable being honest about his gambling (Matheson et al., 2022). The speaker says they built trust with the worker due to their ability to listen and make them feel comfortable (Matheson et al., 2022). Ultimately, they say the therapeutic relationship was very important in creating enough trust so they felt comfortable disclosing their issues so they could be dealt with (Matheson et al., 2022).
Discuss how this would specifically inform one intervention recommendation for social work practice with clients.
An intervention this qualitative information informed would be client-centered practice (CCP) (Matheson et al., 2022). CCP is focused on the client’s needs based on their experiences and situations. It demands the worker to build trust and rapport with the client by listening to their thoughts, feelings, and experiences, which leads to validation and empowerment of the client (Matheson et al., 2022). This practice also allows the worker to gain information on all holistic factors of the client’s issues (Matheson et al., 2022).
Explain how you would adapt CCP to be culturally sensitive and relevant for Indigenous communities. Choose a surface structure adaptation that Fennig reviewed and provide two strategies for application with your selected group.
Specifically, to tailor CCP to be culturally sensitive and relevant for Indigenous communities, a deep understanding of the culture, environment, values, spiritual beliefs, and resources would be needed and then used to implement interventions like harm reduction (Marsiglia et al., 2019). Collaborating with community leaders and elders could help inform workers on implementing CCPs, such as harm reduction (Fennig, 2020). Some ways of adapting any practice using surface structure adaptions would be using the client’s preferred language when intervening with them and, if possible, having a worker of the same cultural background (Fennig, 2020). For example, the workers may be Indigenous themselves and fluent in English and Cree if working with Cree people (Fennig, 2020). This may help build trust between the client and the worker and create feelings of safety and support for the client (Fennig, 2020). There would be no issue with language barriers or misinterpretations between the client and worker, and the worker would have intimate knowledge of the client’s environment and generational trauma and discrimination (Fennig, 2020).