Multicultural Competence
The Role of Counselors in Reducing the Effects of Racism and Discrimination among Native and Asian Americans
Counsellors should provide culturally responsive treatment. They must remain committed to gaining cultural knowledge and clinical skills required to treat Asians and Native Americans. This entails gaining an understanding of the client’s identification with how one or more cultural group influences the client’s identity, the client’s belief concerning health and treatment, as well as their treatment preferences as an individual from a specific culture. According to NCBI (2018), the multidimensional model can enable counselors to develop multicultural competence to provide high-quality care to their clients.
Some traditional beliefs among Asian Americans are that substance abuse is tolerated occasionally. For instance, some Asian Americans believe that alcohol provides ceremonial, beneficial, and curative value (NCBI, 2018). Cambodian pregnant women are offered medicine with an alcohol base because they think that it helps ease the childbirth process. Counselors should seek to understand such traditions to know how to approach clients from this race and provide better-personalized care.
The Role of Counselling in Fostering a stronger Service Acceptance by Asian Americans
First, the healthcare sector should consider hiring more counselors from the Asian and Native American races. This will encourage more citizens from this race to seek mental healthcare services and accept help from the counselors because they believe that since they are one of them, they understand their traditions regarding the same (Iwamasa, 2019). These counselors should also be trained to encourage more patients from their race to seek healthcare services that fit in with their traditional beliefs.
Second, the counselors should be trained on their clients’ cultural beliefs, especially the ones related to psychological distress. As seen above, some races have ideas that encourage drug abuse and other substances (Iwamasa, 2019). Counselors should be trained on these beliefs so that they can approach treatment from a different angle. For instance, when a culture allows alcohol use under certain circumstances that may pose potential harm to their health, the counselor should understand how to approach such an issue and provide the necessary treatment or recommendation.
How the reading Material aligns with the Videos
Both materials state that Native Americans and Asian Americans face more risk factors such as poverty and substance abuse. As such, there should be a more personalized approach to dealing with individuals from these minority groups to ensure that their underlying issues are covered for more effective treatment.
Lessons Learned
First, I understand the challenges that Native and Asian Americans go through because of their traditional beliefs about mental health issues and overall treatment. I have learned that the best way to treat individuals from this population is to understand their traditional beliefs about treatment and provide care based on them.
It is wrong to assume that Asian and Native Americans share similar treatment beliefs with the rest of the population, and thus a personalized treatment plan is a way to go. I would seek first to understand how they perceive treatment and what they think is the best approach. I would then use their beliefs to recommend the best treatment plan to include their views and a proven treatment plan.
References
Iwamasa, G. (2019). Recommendations for the Treatment of Asian-American/Pacific Islander Populations. Retrieved from: https://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/ethnicity-health/asian-american/psychological-treatment
NCBI. (2018). Behavioural Health Treatment for Major Racial and Ethnic Groups. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK248418/