- Mar 2019
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opentext.wsu.edu opentext.wsu.edu
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Multicultural counseling and therapy aims to offer both a helping role and process that uses modalities and defines goals consistent with the life experiences and cultural values of clients. It strives to recognize client identities to include individual, group, and universal dimensions, advocate the use of universal and culture-specific strategies and roles in the healing process, and balancs the importance of individualism and collectivism in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of client and client systems (Sue, 2001).
In this ted talk, Dr. Jessica Dere outlines some of the issues and benefits that are involved with socio-culturally informed therapy and tactfully reveals the unconscious biases that are present with most people, including therapists and can get in the way of properly administering therapy. https://youtu.be/VrYmQDiunSc
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Review Questions
Question: In which groups are bulimia nervosa most prevalent?
A. African American women B. Hispanic Women C. Caucasian Women D. Hispanic and African American Women
Answer: D
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Review Questions
Question: What has been the most memorable or powerful ad campaign or public message that you have seen that was made for the purpose of de-stigmatizing mental illness?
Answer: Many answers would work. Answers would include the world record egg on instagram, the NBA mental health advertisement and Make It Ok.
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As our society becomes increasingly multiethnic and multiracial, mental health professionals must develop cultural competence ([link]), which means they must understand and address issues of race, culture, and ethnicity. They must also develop strategies to effectively address the needs of various populations for which Eurocentric therapies have limited application (Sue, 2004). For example, a counselor whose treatment focuses on individual decision making may be ineffective at helping a Chinese client with a collectivist approach to problem solving (Sue, 2004).
The American Psychological Association has published a variety of graphs and charts that shed light on some very alarming statistics regarding the prevalence of mental illness and the lack of of people seeking treatment. Most notably is that only around fifty percent of Caucasians seeks treatment for mental illness and African Americans seek treatment far less, closer to thirty percent. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/01/publication-disparities
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Fortunately, we are starting to see campaigns related to the destigmatization of mental illness and an increase in public education and awareness. Join the effort by encouraging and supporting those around you to seek help if they need it. To learn more, visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) website (http://www.nami.org/). The nation’s largest nonprofit mental health advocacy and support organization is NAMI.
This ted talk by Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman highlights some of the benefits that mental health de-stigmatization will bring. https://youtu.be/WrbTbB9tTtA
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The nation’s largest nonprofit mental health advocacy and support organization is NAMI.
This doesn't count as an an annotation but smh I was literally gonna link this and I discovered it's already on here lol
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Multicultural counseling and therapy aims to offer both a helping role and process that uses modalities and defines goals consistent with the life experiences and cultural values of clients. It strives to recognize client identities to include individual, group, and universal dimensions, advocate the use of universal and culture-specific strategies and roles in the healing process, and balancs the importance of individualism and collectivism in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of client and client systems (Sue, 2001).
While clinicians know that they need to be more socio-culturally attuned in their practice, not all of them realize exactly how to achieve this. In order to be socio-culturally attuned, the clinician must follow these steps. "Attune to Context and Power, Value What is Minimized, Intervene in Power Dynamics, Envision Just Alternatives, and Transform to Make the Imagined a Reality." (McDowell, T., Knudson-Martin, C., & Bermudez, J. M.)
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Fortunately, we are starting to see campaigns related to the destigmatization of mental illness and an increase in public education and awareness. Join the effort by encouraging and supporting those around you to seek help if they need it. To learn more, visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) website (http://www.nami.org/). The nation’s largest nonprofit mental health advocacy and support organization is NAMI.
Another way of de-stigmatizing mental illness is by offering training for people so that they can react to mental illnesses and also educate their peers about the reality of it. WSU is doing this through their mental health training program, which can be found here. https://cougarhealth.wsu.edu/mental-health-promotion/mental-health-trainings/
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Virginia, and Columbia University, interviews with over 1,300 U.S. adults show that they believe children with depression are prone to violence and that if a child receives treatment for a psychological disorder, then that child is more likely to be rejected by peers at school.
Many resources are available for most university students, for example, WSU offers behavioral health services for an incredibly large number of different mental problems from anxiety and depression to phobias and insomnia. One might argue however that high school campuses don't offer enough treatment or do enough to de-stigmatize mental illnesses, especially in the wake of catastrophes like sandy hook among others.
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Review Questions
Question: By the time a child is in high school, how many of his classmates will have had a mental health issue? A. 2% B. 5% C. 10% D. 20% Answer: D
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Review Questions
Question: Assuming that you had a mental illness, what would be the most important barrier that would prevent you from being treated? How could that barrier be lessened enough so that it isn't a factor in your decision?
Answer: The answer can vary of course, but if their biggest barrier is fear of miscommunication, then the best answer would be having a copious amount of bilingual therapists. If their biggest barrier is the stigma, then the best answer would be educating better and making it so that people have no reason to be judgmental about someone who is treated for a mental illness. If their most important barrier is fear of legal issues, then the best answer would be not requiring documentation and advertising the fact that they don't.
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As our society becomes increasingly multiethnic and multiracial, mental health professionals must develop cultural competence ([link]), which means they must understand and address issues of race, culture, and ethnicity. They must also develop strategies to effectively address the needs of various populations for which Eurocentric therapies have limited application (Sue, 2004). For example, a counselor whose treatment focuses on individual decision making may be ineffective at helping a Chinese client with a collectivist approach to problem solving (Sue, 2004).
Minorities, and in particular the Latino community, seek therapy less often than Caucasians in the United States, and there are a few reasons for this, including fear of legal issues, a stigma around the concept of psychotherapy, and importantly, a fear of their struggles being miscommunication. A 2012 study of the Latino American population in the Midwest helped to affirm that there are a couple things that can be done to improve this. One is to have more bilingual therapists, which would help lessen fears of miscommunication. The other is to educate people about mental health problems in order to lessen the stigma surrounding them. (Rastogi, M., Massey-Hastings, N., & Wieling, E. 2012)
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This therapeutic perspective integrates the impact of cultural and social norms, starting at the beginning of treatment. Therapists who use this perspective work with clients to obtain and integrate information about their cultural patterns into a unique treatment approach based on their particular situation (Stewart, Simmons, & Habibpour, 2012). Sociocultural therapy can include individual, group, family, and couples treatment modalities.
Additionally, many psychology professionals are currently working on new ways of educating and informing clinicians about how they can be more socio-culturally attuned. A prime example of this is a study conducted by a group of therapists in 2014, in which therapy sessions were rigorously examined, and following the sessions, the researchers discussed how well socio-cultural attunement was implemented. (Perron, N. J., Perneger, T., Kolly, V., Dao, M. D., Sommer, J., & Hudelson, P. 2009)
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This therapeutic perspective integrates the impact of cultural and social norms, starting at the beginning of treatment. Therapists who use this perspective work with clients to obtain and integrate information about their cultural patterns into a unique treatment approach based on their particular situation (Stewart, Simmons, & Habibpour, 2012). Sociocultural therapy can include individual, group, family, and couples treatment modalities.
Researchers have identified a few ways of rating clinicians on their socio-cultural attunement. One of which is using a computer based simulation to find out how well they can identify important socio-cultural factors in a simulated therapy session. A study published in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice concluded that computer based rating scores correlated positively with people's opinions about how well they were socio-culturally attuned, meaning that the simulation is an effective way of evaluating them. (Pandit, M. L., Chen-Feng, J., Kang, Y. J., Knudson-Martin, C., & Huenergardt, D. 2014)
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