Justice or ethical grounds have also propelled calls for cultural competency (Whaley & Davis, 2007). The goals of many professional organizations include equity and fairness in the delivery of services. The APA Ethics Code (APA, 1992) and the APA Guidelines for Providers of Psychological Services to Ethnic, Linguistic, and Culturally Diverse Populations (APA,1993) “accord appropriate respect to the fundamental rights, dignity, and worth for all people” (Principle D:Respect for People’s Rights and Dignity, p. 1599). Among the first to raise the issue of cultural competency were counseling psychologists through organisations such the Association for Non-White Concerns in Personnel and Guidance in the 1970s and the Association for Multicultural …show more content…
According to (Davis, 1997, p. 4) cultural competence is: “The integration and transformation of knowledge, information, and data about individuals and groups of people into specific clinical standards, skills, service approaches, techniques, and marketing programs that match the individual’s culture and increase the quality and appropriateness of mental health care and outcomes”
Many models of culturally sensitive therapy have been developed (Hall et al. 2003).While some have looked at it from the viewpoint of ingredients essential for cultural competence such as having respect for cultural differences and similarities that exist for diverse groups. Other models focus on the outcomes gained from being culturally competent such as positive clinical outcomes, thus, having cultural knowledge or skills is important to the extent that positive outcomes are achieved, such as: The model of cultural competence (Sue et al. , 1992) proposes that the culturally competent counselor:
1. Is culturally aware - where the therapist is sensitive to his or her own cultural beliefs and how this may affect the counselling