Chapter 4 – Understanding Populations – Corey Miller
When focusing in on practice within
a certain population a social worker can engage in a series of five tasks to
help them work more efficiently.
Task one is to develop cultural humility. In our MSW studies
we have heard a lot about developing cultural competence but this task looks at
a social worker engaging in a continuing process of learning and
self-reflection so that we can more create deeper and more equal relationships
with our target service population.
Task two is to seek diverse
perspectives. Involved in this task is listening and understanding the unique
perspectives of people who have experience the problem. It is important to
begin to identify and key members, allies, and advocates in the community.
Task three is to search the
professional knowledge base on the target population. I feel that this is where
we as current students have gotten the most experience right now. This is the
searching of academic resources and literature reviews as well as looking at
historical and societal background on the population.
Task four is selecting factors that
help in understanding the target population. This is looking back at all that
data and information you’ve found out about that population and seeing some
common factors or correlations.
Task five is developing a working
hypothesis of etiology about the problem. Ok, this confused me at first but
after breaking it down it just means look at all that you’ve studied/learned
about your population (those common factors) and use them to make a hypothesis
about the problem in the population.
I had the unique experience in life to have
been able to have spend a third of my life overseas. My three years living and
working in Cambodia work were some of the most awkward, painful, growing, and
yet joyful years so far. I worked as the only Westerner in an aftercare shelter
for girls and young women rescued from human trafficking and sexual abuse. One
of my biggest teachers was my Cambodian mother, Syna, she was the head social
worker at our shelter. This was a woman in her late forties who had lived
through her country’s genocide, refugee camps in Thailand, returning to
Cambodia while it was occupied by Vietnam, and then the final fall of Pol Pot
in the late 1990s…her depth of wisdom and insight is mind blowing. I loved
getting to do ride-alongs with her because she was ok with me asking a million
questions about what just happened in the home visit. She also felt comfortable
enough with me to correct any of mistakes, which were at times plentiful. After
one home assessment I asked her why she asked the square footage of the
client’s house. She went on to explain that they had done studies, which showed
the correlation between the size of the house and the risk of sexual abuse of
the children in the house. We began talking and I asked her if they taught
children the concept of good touch bad touch. After finding out they did not
have it we were able to work together to develop and put into practice a
culturally appropriate curriculum with our staff and clients.
Has anyone else had experience working
outside your culture? Any lessons you’ve learned along the way? How have you
gotten to know your target populations? Any thoughts on cultural competence vs.
cultural humility?
I have lived in another country and learned much from the experience. I never felt cultural competence was required from me. I did sense expectations of validating their national pride, embracing their social systems, and was humbled by how much I did not understand about the world and its different cultures. I have never thought about applying these lessons to subpopulations nor cultural groups within the United States. I had the fallacy of The Melting Pot, which I now realized is a very erroneous concept. I think all cultures should be encouraged to celebrate their uniqueness and identity. It is with sadness to think about everything I could have learned from my grandmother who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1920s as a teenager. She suppressed her heritage to fit in with Americans. This was farther complicated by a deep fear of being found due to the persecution occurring in her country. We think they were influential, wealthy, and involved in government whom history tells us were killed during the take over. She never shared anything and would not even discuss visiting her birth country when they regained Independence. She did continue to speak the language and joined a society with other refugees, but she told us nothing of our relative in Lithuania. She passed away two years ago. I share this because there are numerous immigrants living in the United States, because they fled persecution or something outside of their control. I do not know the statistics, but we should be careful to not assume they are here voluntarily nor assume they can simply go back to their country. I have much respect and compassion for those who bravely move to another country. They should be encouraged to embrace their identity, their customs, their language, and to gather together for the simple pleasure of connecting with a small piece of what has been left behind. Living in another country for over two years gave me a deep appreciation for my country. I cannot imagine knowing I could not return to the country of my youth nor visit the country of my birth.
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