Cultural Competence Significance

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Cultural Competence Significance While in actuality, there are high-ranking alcohol dependence rates among American Indians and Alaskan Natives, mixed racial and ethnic heritage populations (Lassiter & Chang, 2006). The aforementioned authors described that ethnic, and culturally diverse populations pose the possibility of being at a higher risk for developing substance abuse related issues, making it imperative that substance abuse counselors take into account the specifics surrounding the increase of diverse populations within the United States. Conveying the logicality that substance abuse counselors have the prospect of engaging and treating these diverse populations, causes a need to administer effective treatment options that can be gained …show more content…

There has been significant improvement in cultural competent practices, but individuals seeking treatment are often presented with barriers that interrupt their attempt at receiving urgent care. An effort to initiate change involving this issue includes employing bilingual substance abuse providers (Liu, 2013). The environment in which individuals are introduced to while seeking services can have a significant impact on their outcome and substance abuse providers that employ dual language skills in such agencies play a significant role (Liu, 2013). In addition, agencies that provide a high level of cultural proficiency employ bilingual staff members. While agencies with low levels of cultural proficiency do not have any bilingual staff members or refrain from utilizing practices that involve cultural …show more content…

Authors Pompeo and Levitt (2014) define self-reflection as the conscious decision that which an individual acknowledges and evaluates their actions. Thus, these said actions could include being forthcoming about the intentions and motives that are considered personal benefits. In addition, the center of self-reflection consists of the individual’s emotions, thoughts, and feelings. Universally goals that counselors should incorporate in conjunction with adhering to self-reflection include conscious awareness, thoughts, and feelings (Pompeo & Levitt, 2014). Both self-reflection and self-awareness are routine developments that are utilized to assist counselors with becoming proficient in cultural practices. As with all professions when attempting to provide services to individuals it is imperative that ethical practices are being administered. Ethics are directly linked to self-awareness because they are the foundations that assist with behavioral cognitions (Pompeo & Levitt, 2014). Furthermore, self-reflection is also defined as the substance abuse counselor’s consciousness of their feelings, thoughts, reactions and personal values concerning the treatment surrounding