The Importance of Cross-Cultural Competence

The humanitarian and the community studies mainly provide the opportunity for the students in learning, critically analyzing and applying the concepts of the human service delivery in the field of humanitarian aid, social and community engagement (Green et al., 2017). The individuals get scopes of being employed for service delivery in the field of humanitarian aid, social as well as community engagement. The workers mainly need to develop the essential knowledge as well as skills required in working with the individuals as well as groups not only from the indigenous communities but also for the different disadvantaged and generalized communities of the nation (Sue et al., 2015). The individuals working in the fields need to develop an in-depth knowledge in the domains of the psychology, sociology as well as in the human behaviors ethics and even cross-cultural communications skills. They also need to develop awareness for not only the indigenous culture and knowledge but about the different cultures of the people who reside in the nation besides the non-indigenous Australians. This assignment would thereby focus on two important concepts like cross-cultural skills as well as perception and sensation. It will show how the two concepts help in overcoming various issues in the domain and how the skills can be developed in order to improve the condition of the disorder.

Cross-cultural competence can be defined as the ability of the individuals in understanding, communicating and interacting effectively with people across different cultures. Researchers are of the opinion that cross-cultural competence by every social and community worker should comprise of being aware of the individual’s own point of view and developing attitudes that helps in successful and sensitive handling of the cultural differences among the various clients who need support (Fisher et al., 2015). Cross-cultural competence mainly helps in allowing the social an community workers to become more attuned with and sensitive for different individuals, family and different group specific needs, values, beliefs and attitudes. This is done in order to provide more culturally competent interventions, services as well as supports that align with the cultural traditions, perceptions as well as inhibitions of the different clients coming from different backgrounds. Researchers are of the opinion that cross-cultural competence is mainly about the will and actions for building a proper understanding between people (Mason et al., 2018). They also need to be open and respectful for the different cultural perspectives that would be required for strengthening of the cultural security and helps in working towards equality and the opportunity. Relationship building is fundamental to cross-cultural competence and is therefore based on the foundations of understanding each other’s expectations and attitudes and subsequently building on the strengthening of each other’s knowledge (Ochs & Scheiefflein, 2017).

Perception and Sensation

From this concept, there arises the importance of another concept called the sensation and the perception. These two concepts are intimately related but they may be seen to play different roles how one individuals perceives the world. Sensation refers to the procedures of sensing the environment through proper touch, taste, sight, sound as well as smelling. This information is sent to the brains in the raw form and in this arena, the perception is seen to play roles. Perception is the way by which individuals are seen to interpret these sensations and thereby participates in making sense of everything surround them (Truong et al., 2014). Therefore, in a summarized form, sensation has been explained by researchers as the passive processing of the bringing in the information from outside world into the body and then to the brain. This process is termed as passive by many researchers because an individual does not have to engage actively in the sensing procedure. It can be defined as the active process of selection, organization and interpretation of the information that is brought to the brain by the senses.

The nation of Australia has become egalitarian in nature. This means that the nation believes in respecting equal rights and opportunities of all the residents of the nation irrespective of their background, class, ethnicity, race and religion. Moreover, the nation is trying its best to ensure equality among all members of the nation so that every person gets the full potential to love successful and healthy lives (foley & Matlin, 2015). However, the outcomes that had been reported shows a different result and failing of the close the gap campaign had been seen to be one of the biggest example. The Aboriginal Australians are seen to still facing disadvantages and the huge gap in the health status between the Aboriginal Australians and the non-indigenous Australians is one such example. One closely analyzing the causes of the failures of the different campaigns for not only the Aboriginal Australians but also of the different culturally and linguistically diverse communities, important data has been found which is extremely important for the individuals working as health professionals and social and community workers of the nation (Mather, 2016). It has been found that considerations and participations of the representatives of the communities is one such cause. Due to absence of the participation, the western health and community workers are not able to understand exactly their needs and requirement. Another main cause is the improper incompetent cross-cultural communication that takes among the professionals and that of the communities and clients who need support. Even data has suggested that the professionals exhibit improper verbal and non-verbal communication skills that do not align with that of the culturally diverse communities. Examples can be provided in case of the cross-cultural incompetency to shed more light on the issues. Asians do not prefer eye contact while communicating with the professionals while direct eye contact is considered as an important aspect of eastern communication medium helping in developing trusts and shows genuine feelings (Cabarello et al., 2015). Therefore, when a professional works with culturally diverse Asian communities they need to be careful in managing such non-verbal skills and for this they need to have proper cross- cultural competence. Moreover, in case of the native people of the nation, they are seen to prefer silence during conversations whereas silence during western mode of communication is disliked and shows the urgency of the communicators to fill the gap (Zuckerman et al., 2014). Therefore, it becomes extremely important for the community workers to develop cross-cultural knowledge and accordingly develop intervention plans to help such communities meet their needs, otherwise they would feel de-motivated, dishonored and disrespected and their level of compliance and help seeking behaviors will decrease. .

Challenges Faced by Western Health and Community Workers

Similar another concept that needs to be applied while working with the culturally diverse communities are sensations and perceptions. Every specific culture and families have their own ways pr perceptions regarding various attributes in their lives and their sensations about their surrounding along with their perceptions might make them feel differently from another family or from communities of different culture. No two individuals have the same perception and sensations regarding the different aspects that happen in their life as well as the carious attributes of their likes and dislikes. Often the application of interventions by the professionals as “one that fit all” kinds of treatments will never bring positive results but will in turn disrupt the relationship building that needs to take place between professionals and their clients or communities where they work (Miller & Kras et al., 2015). It is extremely important for the professionals to develop the skills where they would be not only able to develop a wide sense of sensations and perceptions but also can help the clients by effectively understanding their particular perception and the work accordingly. Developing the skills of being broad and open minded and being able to accommodate and work accordingly to the different sensations and perceptions of each of the clients would help a lot. This would not only help in providing service in a person-centered approach but would also encourage equal participation as communities will feel that the professional genuinely understand and cares for their sensations of the world and perceptions.

In order to improve the issues of culturally incompetent services and care that the culturally diverse communities face as well as improper ideas and misconceptions developed about the perceptions and sensations of the communities, it is important for the professionals to develop important skills. The first skill would be cross-cultural competence and knowledge and the second skill would be effective self-regulation, self-awareness and broad-minded approach. It is extremely important for the healthcare professionals to understand that one intervention fits all approach is highly criticizing and never brings positive outcomes. It is therefore important for the development of the situations and for this, the professional first needs to develop their inter-personal skills of cross cultural communication and competence, develop self-awareness and self-regulation, overcome cultural biasness, and develop broad-minded thinking procedures (Dutton & Raggins, 2017). This could be achieved by the attending workshops, practicing more evidence-based practices, searching website articles about different perceptions and sensations of different cultures, attending seminars and discussion forums and interviewing experienced stalwarts. Moreover, advocating about the issues to the government and accordingly helping the policy makers develop effective policies in overcoming the issues can be also suggested.

From the above discussion, it becomes clear that cross-cultural competence and developing ideas about perception and sensation of the clients are very important. This would help in increasing their help seeking behaviors and compliance with the interventions, as they would feel respected, cared and understood. Therefore, development of inter-personal skills of the professionals and advocating the issues to the government are important for overcoming the issues.

References:

Caballero, R., & Paradis, C. (2015). Making sense of sensory perceptions across languages and cultures. Functions of language, 22(1), 1-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.22.1.01cab

Dutton, J. E., & Ragins, B. R. (2017). Exploring positive relationships at work: Building a theoretical and research foundation. Psychology Press. Retrieved from: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351567374

Fisher-Borne, M., Cain, J. M., & Martin, S. L. (2015). From mastery to accountability: Cultural humility as an alternative to cultural competence. Social Work Education, 34(2), 165-181. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659614524790

Foley, H., & Matlin, M. (2015). Sensation and perception. Psychology press. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jLBmCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=perceptions+and+sensations+in+community+work&ots=GSgv8DIvG1&sig=5oMIsB5-4CvfXjQG8CZfz6YNC3Y#v=onepage&q=perceptions%20and%20sensations%20in%20community%20work&f=false

Greene, R. R. (2017). Human Behavior Theory and Professional Social Work Practice. In Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice (pp. 31-62). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2014.977244

Mason, B. (2018). Exploring the unsaid: Creativity, risks and dilemmas in working cross-culturally. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02255-0_1

Mather, G. (2016). Foundations of sensation and perception. Psychology Press. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781317372554

Miller-Karas, E. (2015). Building resilience to trauma: The trauma and community resiliency models. Routledge. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=aWTABgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=perceptions+and+sensations+in+community+work&ots=fz76hWPJQL&sig=qtArROsjn63DXeqO8h1nGYDgOpo#v=onepage&q=perceptions%20and%20sensations%20in%20community%20work&f=false

Ochs, E., & Schieffelin, B. (2017). Language socialization: An historical overview. In Language socialization (pp. 3-16). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-14-99

Sue, D. W., Rasheed, M. N., & Rasheed, J. M. (2015). Multicultural social work practice: A competency-based approach to diversity and social justice. John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351327398/chapters/10.4324%2F9781351327404-2

Truong, M., Paradies, Y., & Priest, N. (2014). Interventions to improve cultural competency in healthcare: a systematic review of reviews. BMC health services research, 14(1), 99. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5rM7CwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR15&dq=cross+cultural+competence+in+community+work&ots=Lju-Amj37t&sig=lfi7XDSJ1vmcjDstfEY8YGja-DQ#v=onepage&q=cross%20cultural%20competence%20in%20community%20work&f=false

Zuckerman, M. (2014). Sensation seeking (psychology revivals): beyond the optimal level of arousal. Psychology Press. Retrieved from : https://content.taylorfrancis.com/books/download?dac=C2014-0-30812-2&isbn=9781317627340&format=googlePreviewPdf