Fluent Essays

Guided Response: Respond to your classmates’ postings. Your responses should be a minimum of 150 words each and should either elaborate on a key point a peer has made or seek to gain additional information.3 Responses total hhs497_responses.docx Unformatted Attachment Preview There should be 3 responses total Discuss what it means to provide culturally sensitive services to clients, or culturally sensitive leadership practices to people within an organization. Using the MHHS Case Study identify an issue in the case that lacks a culturally sensitive approach. As either a health and human services provider or leader, how would you address this issue? Clearly identify the practices you would put in place. Your initial post should contain a minimum of 400 words. Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings. Your responses should be a minimum of 150 words each and should either elaborate on a key point a peer has made or seek to gain additional information. 1.Respond to the Insturctor: The instructor responded to my post(Chanel) Respond to the instructor’s question to me. 2. Carletha 3. Patricia Culturally Sensitive Practice and Leadership Chanel (my Post) Week 3 - Discussion Forum Providing culturally sensitive services to people is essential in modern society. The provision of such services aims at changing the mentality of one’s clients regarding other ways of life. Also, it turns their approaches to communication and handling of daily tasks. These services call for a strong relationship between the service providers and their clients. In the case of an organization, for instance, its leadership, activities, and structure should be designed to reflect various priorities, values, styles, and perspectives. The diversification of these factors is meant to accommodate clients from different cultural backgrounds (Jongen, McCalman & Bainbridge, 2018). Hence, changing the outlook of an organization is never enough in providing a culturally sensitive service. However, it fits as the first step of the provision. Culturally sensitive services also emphasize the importance of cultural diversity. They give room for the celebration of each cultures contribution to an organization. Following this approach, all clients feel equal before the organization and hence improving their sense of belonging. Providing culturally sensitive services within an organization also means that the leadership should rejoice on the results accruing from the interaction of different cultures. Failure to embrace such interactions would discourage employees or clients from interacting freely with each other. Equality of different cultures is also ensured through even distribution of powers within an organization. Following the need for this quality, therefore, service providers and organizations should involve a continuous evaluation of their service to ensure inclusivity and diversity. According to the case study, the main issue showing the lack of cultural sensitivity is the composition of the staff. The case study states that the whites make up the highest composition of the staff while leave the other races to share among the remaining few positions. The whites make up 90\% of the staff posts. The remaining 10\% is taken up by Blacks and Hispanics. These figures mean that some races were discriminated. For instance, Asians did not secure a chance to serve as members of the staff. Also, particular posts are dominated by specific genders. There are very little inclusivity and diversity regarding the sharing of responsibilities among the staff members. If I were at the place of health and human services leaders, I would ensure the staff composition upholds cultural sensitivity. I would also make sure they are qualified to deal with different cultures. For instance, I would impose regulations that gave chances for even representation of all races. Also, I would ensure that gender equality is considered daring the assignment of all responsibilities. References Jongen, C., McCalman, J., & Bainbridge, R. (2018). Health workforce cultural competency interventions: a systematic scoping review. BMC Health Services Research, 18(1). doi:10.1186/s12913-018-3001-5 • Instructor Chanel, about 15 years ago I work for very large organization in this social services field and we had a similar staff breakdown and many people tried unsuccessfully to change the racial composition of the organization with very little success. What do you think are some strategies that the organization could use to try to get more diversity in their employment? For example, one position that we consistently hide a very difficult time balancing we could never get anyone who was not white to apply for. What could have been done more effectively to get a wider pool of applicants? Carletha Cultural Competency Meaning of Cultural Competence Cultural competence is an essential attribute in a healthcare setting. It includes efforts to understand and respond to the unique needs of individuals in a wellness institution based on their social differences. However, the concept has varied definitions. People behave differently due to their ethnic variations, a factor that influences their language, actions, beliefs, communications, values, and race, among others. Culturally-competent individuals include persons that can offer effective services, despite the racial disparities (Jongen, McCalman & Bainbridge, 2018). Therefore, healthcare organizations seeking to achieve a fair objective have to embrace a set of defined values and principles that make their staff adhere to rational behaviors, policies, and attitudes that promote cultural diversity. With the approach, the practitioners will value diversity and offer services that meet the patients demands without any bias. Training and employee motivation is essential in creating a healthcare workforce with competent skills in the profession. A Case that Lacks Culturally Sensitive Approach In the Case Study (MHHS), the organization strives to enhance community welfare. Nonetheless, some practices raise ethical concerns. The institution lacks diversity, with the majority of the employees being whites, an indication that employment policies discriminate against the minority groups. Additionally, while 75 percent of the staff are women, the majority of the directors at the firm are men. The organization also has no program meant to improve cultural diversity. The new CEO remains the only female to hold the position since the inception of the organization. Employees at the healthcare firm also lack cultural competence as they do not value the aesthetic concerns of their patients. For instance, although 10 percent of the inmates speak Spanish, the institution has not made any effort to employ practitioners that understand the language. Instead, they rely on third parties for communication. Additionally, the bullying of the gay student demonstrates that the wellness facility discriminates against minority groups. How to Address the Issue As a leader, I believe that it is necessary to introduce cultural competence education and training for the workforce. The strategy will provide the staff with the essential skills and knowledge to embrace cultural diversity (Gregg Learning, 2018). With the training, the team will understand the ways to maneuver around different cross-cultural issues. For instance, enforcing cultural competence intervention will eliminate racial and ethnic bias faced in the workplace. Relevant Practices The standard practices that need to be implemented include the following. First, MHHS should adopt cultural competence, education, and training. The program should be made mandatory for all the employees of the firm. The practice should be followed by a professional development intervention, an approach to further cultural competence (Jongen, McCalman & Bainbridge, 2018). Secondly, the organization should revise its recruitment and selection process to embrace equality and ensure that people from minority groups are considered. Additionally, employment policies should support the notion of diversity. Cultural competency is essential and contributes to improved access to healthcare, especially minorities. The concept is vital in overcoming the cultural and linguistic barriers experienced in the healthcare setting. There is a need to create awareness on the significance of cultural competence and its implication to wellness. The strategy will change the way people perceive the issue and learn to embrace the cultural differences. Besides, the workers will begin to value and appreciate the cultural differences of clients. References Gregg Learning (2018). Cultural competence [Motion Picture], California, U.S.: YouTube. Jongen, C., McCalman, J., & Bainbridge, R. (2018). Health workforce cultural competency interventions: A systematic scoping review. BMC Health Services Research, 18(1), 232. Patricia The implicities provided to any situation once viewed through the lens of ‘cultural context’ can not only drastically alter ones perception and understanding of the event, but also completely change any potential prescribed course of action. That is to say, there are often more factors to be addressed once considering cultural differences, and any truly sufficient solution will take care to weigh and measure as many possible factors in an issue as possible. Cultural context can make a healthcare professional aware of issues they had never thought to consider previously; it can also help make them aware of possible biases they may be unconsciously holding that hamper their decision-making process. In fact, implicit cultural bias is a major problem in the healthcare community as a whole, that is experiencing a (relatively recent) very active push in addressing it (Johnson, et. al, 2004). Manifesting in different ways, this unconscious bias not only impedes a professional from offering a patient a culturally sensitive experience, but can lead to unintended discrimination that ultimately harms the patient even further. Perhaps one of the biggest examples of cultural insensitivity presented in the MHHS Case Study is the (rather extreme) lack of Spanish speakers available among the employees of the organization. Despite a very significant portion of the clientele only speaking Spanish (1 out of every 10 people), the organization does not employ a single Spanish speaker. This indicates a number of pressing issues: First, this speaks volumes as a failure to accommodate or have considerations for the patients. Not only is the basic frequency of Spanish speakers high among clientele, but Hispanic/Latino patients make up the largest portion of clients in general. Ignoring accommodations for this group reflects very poorly on the organizations ability to understand its clientele. Not only that, but this cultural insensitivity forces the patient to have to attempt on their own to address it: the case study mentions some patients bringing relatives or children to translate for them. But what of those who do not have children, or anyone to speak on their behalf? It is very likely that a number of people are simply going without care due to not being able to overcome this barrier. My own personal solutions to tackling this issue would, to remedy the surface problems, place an immediate priority on hiring healthcare professionals who are bilingual. These would preferably be individuals who are already qualified to be employed into other, preexisting positions; creating an entirely new position of ‘translator’ would place unnecessary stress on the budget, and such an area is not so specialized that it requires a unique job position. I would direct employment to professionals who are already based in the area around the organization (primarily the second location, as that presumably is where the bulk of Spanish-speaking patients come from). Logistically, it can be assumed that professionals from the area would somewhat reflect the demographics of the area that they are from, which means that it would be likely for them to be able to communicate with the clientele. Johnson, R. L., Saha, S., Arbelaez, J. J., Beach, M. C., & Cooper, L. A. (2004). Racial and Ethnic Differences in Patient Perceptions of Bias and Cultural Competence in Health Care. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 19(2), 101–110. https://doi-org.proxylibrary.ashford.edu/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30262.x ... Purchase answer to see full attachment