Ch 4 Case Management

​It is the ethical responsibility of human services workers to become familiar with the culture of the client so that:

• ​Cultural differences do not become obstacles to good communication

• ​Every possible culture that a client represents is part of the human services worker’s cultural repertoire

• ​The client will feel more affinity toward human services workers

• ​The human services worker’s own ethnic group does not color the client’s opinion 

​Cultures, subcultures, race and ethnic groups are examples of:

• ​Reasons not to serve certain clients

• Prejudice

• ​Sociological divisions among people

• ​Political divisions among people

​Strangers are:

• ​Whomever the minority culture defines as different

• ​People whose ways of acting are different and who are not members of our in-group

• ​People whose behavior is inferior to ours

• ​Persons whom human services workers should avoid serving

​When we project our own assumptions about persons from a different culture, we:

• ​Are creating the opportunity for clearer communication with them

• ​Improve our understanding of their culture

• ​Are including them into our group

• ​Are attempting to reduce our own anxiety or uncertainty about them

​In our efforts to improve communication with someone who is different from us, we: 

• ​Habitually categorize them

• ​Establish eye contact with them

• ​Remove distractions from the environment

• ​Attribute their positive behavior to the environment or the circumstances

​Seeking exceptions to cultural stereotypes helps us to:

• ​Understand the individual’s culture better

• ​Better place the individual in the context of his or her culture

• ​Reduce our own anxiety or uncertainty about the individual

• ​Gain a more accurate understanding of the individuals we are serving

​Because of internalized verbal and nonverbal scripts within a culture that may be different from your own, you should:

• ​Memorize the other culture’s scripts to help the client adapt to his or her new environment

• ​Check your perceptions with the person in a nonjudgmental way

• ​Never confront the person about his or her behavior because that individual may take offence

• ​Understand that some cultural perspectives are superior to others

​A person from a collectivist culture would tend to:

• ​Rely on low-context communication for comprehension of meaning

• ​Communicate in a similar way to members of in-groups and out-groups

• ​Communicate in a more ambiguous way to avoid hurting or imposing on others

• ​Support unique individual beliefs

​Mental mechanisms that can block clear communication and create conflict include:

• ​Persuasion, emotion and saving face

• ​Ethnocentrism, prejudice and stereotypes

• ​Psychological barriers and low self-disclosure

• ​Time compartmentalization and focus on punctuality

​Cultural competence in human services workers to improve cross-cultural communication is achieved by:

• ​Being more adaptable to, and flexible in, choosing how to respond to situations

• ​Focusing on serving one or two cultural groups in order to increase specialization

• ​Increasing opportunities for persons from individualistic and collectivist cultures to interact

• ​Attributing the client’s negative behavior to the environment or his or her circumstances