CHCCS401A
Audio clip - Working with culturally diverse clients and coworkers
Hello, my name is Donna Justo and I am talking with you today around some of the
issues when working effectively with culturally diverse clients and co-workers.
Cultural diversity may include the following:
 ethnicity
 race
 language
 cultural norms and values
 religion
 beliefs and customs
 kinship and family structure.
It also may include:
 personal history and experience which may have been traumatic
 gender and gender relationships
 age
 disability
 sexuality and special needs.
In looking at Element 1 of this particular interest area which is really critical in your
particular work, ‘Apply an awareness of culture as a factor in all human behaviours’.
and really what that means is culture isn’t an ‘add on’, it is something that we must
consider from the beginning.
If it is that we are working and have chosen to work in the area of working with
children, young people or adults, it is important that we understand that they will very
much be impacted upon by their cultural experience. Whether they come from an
aboriginal background, Torres Strait Islander background, non-English-speaking
background, linguistically or culturally diverse background, whether they are a person
with a disability, whether they are a young person with an intellectual disability, or an
older person who experienced both world wars, these are a range of cultural
considerations which will very much impact on the work we do with our client
groups, so it is important that we have a level of understanding and respect for those
processes and that we come to our work with that knowledge, not as something that
we add on.
Work practices that you follow were encouraging, were actively encouraging you to
understand that they need to be culturally appropriate. This means that they need to
be sensitive, respectful and not tokenistic or patronising.
It is that we can work with all people if we adopt some very basic tenets of practice
and again these are about treating people with respect, with dignity and really
understanding their lived experience perhaps will be very much different to yours,
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because perhaps they might be experts in their own lived experience and we need to
value that. We need to understand too that people from other cultural groups are
employed, perhaps, in the organisation, they inform your organisation and are very
much key stakeholders about understanding those experiences and have much to share
with you. The work practices that are followed create a culturally and
psychologically safe environment for all persons. This ensures that all persons that
you engage with in all processes understand the need for specific workers from that
culture to accompany you where possible.
Now sometimes it’s not possible to actually have workers from all 172 cultures
working in your organisation or in your region. However, it might be possible to have
someone from a language group hooked up via interpreter. It might be possible to
have someone from an agency who has been used to working with people who are
immigrants. It might be possible to have an Aboriginal colleague from another
agency or a Torres Strait Islander health worker or a child protection worker or a child
and family support worker accompany you on your work. This really ensures that
you are providing that support. There is, I think, much more understanding around
the issue of gender these days in that if we are working with a woman, it might be that
she actually prefers to speak with a woman. If we are working with a man, he might
prefer to speak with another male worker. However, the challenge for us is that
ideally, we must ask and then where possible attempt to fulfil their request and
support choices they make.
That you also consider the extra complexities of gender, as I have mentioned.
Sexuality, whether the person is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. This will very
much impact on their lived experiences and needs to be considered as part of the
process. Their age, whether they are a child or a young person, or in their late 70s and
other relevant issues.
Another consideration that this competency asks you to consider is how you
contribute to the development of relationships based on cultural diversity. What we
are saying here is that respect for cultural diversity is demonstrated in all of your
communications and interactions with clients, colleagues, customers, etc.– all of those
who you come in contact with. So again, it is about that behaviour on your part. Not
being tokenistic. It is where you really value and appreciate difference. It is not
about tolerating it. Tolerating it means simply that you are tolerating it. Tolerance is
not what we’re looking for. We are looking for understanding and we are looking for
commitment to having total cultural inclusion, despite our issues of diversity.
Specific strategies are used by you to eliminate any bias and discrimination in dealing
with clients and co-workers. Some of these examples might include cross-cultural
work teams .
I gave you an example of that before and that might be where you might be, as an
example, an anglo-Australian worker and you might choose regularly to go into an
Aboriginal community with Aboriginal colleagues from that community. So you are
working alongside of them to support your client group within that community. In
particular, as an example, where that is in a child protection area, or you might be
working in a domestic violence or family violence agency.
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That cross-cultural employee representation on committees is reflected also. So that,
as an example, you are a non-government organisation or sit as part of a justice group
or steering group that you certainly have representation from all of the relevant groups
that sit in that community.
That where possible as employers that you actively seek employees from Aboriginal
backgrounds, Torres Strait Islander backgrounds or non-English-speaking
backgrounds, because this will also send a very clear message to your client group
that you definitely want to engage with those groups and that you understand that it
might be appropriate for them to seek out people from their own cultural group.
However, again, choice and options are very important because some people from a
specific cultural group might choose to link with a mainstream worker because they
might be concerned about issues of confidentiality or privacy. It is important that we
understand that point.
Important too as I state next to you that your workplace is free of culturally
insensitive literature, posters and signage and that we be really conscious of jokes or
other informal asides that might be denigrating. Other experiences too that we might
be concerned with are where people have had, I think, challenging situations. If they
are perhaps from non-English-speaking backgrounds or come from Aboriginal
communities, there could be a difficulty in interacting perhaps with justice authorities,
or you might need to be sensitive about perhaps a meeting not taking place at a police
station or a courthouse in the first instance. It might take place in a more, what could
be perceived by them to be a threatening environment. For us it might be nonthreatening and so it is important that we actually set that initial meeting up to
succeed by holding that meeting in a non-threatening environment.
Inclusion in decision making is very critical. That people from a range of different
cultural backgrounds are able to make informed decisions about what is occurring for
them. To do this they might require an interpreter if they are from another language.
They might be from the Torres Strait and require a Creole interpreter. They might be
from Argentina and require a Spanish language interpreter. They might have no
hearing and so it might be critical for them to have a representative from the
Queensland Deaf Society, as an example, to interpret for them.
Critical that we do this, because in particular, in the child protection area they might
be talking about issues relating to legislation or the law. We might be talking about
medical issues or a whole range of other very important or critical issues, so we can’t
make the presumption that the person actually or actively understands. We need that
clarified via an interpreter.
Element 3 encourages us to look at communicating effectively with culturally diverse
persons that we might be working with. Asks you to consider the following:
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Your verbal cues – how you respond verbally to people.
Are you a good listener? Are you an acute listener? It is very important that we
do that. That we don’t assume or second guess what might be coming from the
person. In particular, where we are using interpreters as the third party in the
process. Remember at all times that you are actively engaging with the client.
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The client is the person that you are looking at, you’re actively engaging with and
the interpreter is there purely to interpret what you are saying and to interpret for
them back to you.
That you use appropriate gestures and facial and physical expressions in your
work.
That you definitely are connected and tuned in to what is being said.
That your posture shows that you are very much interested in what is occurring
and that your body language isn’t reflecting that you are bored, tired, disinterested
or any of those other body language cues that in fact can give very much a
negative impression to the process.
Also that your written communications also are very supportive, that they’re
assessments as opposed to judgements.
Communicate effectively with culturally diverse persons again – and consider these as
well:
Consider any signage that is in your workplace, and again consider the use of
interpreter or another person and why I have listed that is, where possible try never to
use a family member as an interpreter or another person from that community to
interpret, not because we are devaluing that role but because of the quality of that
interpretation. As an example you might use another professional colleague to
interpret if you have no one else that you can make access with. However, it is
critical to use a third party, because if a person is known to them, the person that is
doing the interpreting, they might choose to do exactly that, to exactly interpret what
they think the person’s saying, not what they think the person needs to say, rather than
what they are actively or actually saying. So it is important for us to understand that
distinction.
Element 4 encourages us to look at our capacity to resolve cross-cultural
misunderstandings.
This is really about where we need to utilise our negotiation and conflict resolution
skills to ensure there are no misunderstandings. It is very important that we actually
demonstrate this, I believe, by setting up such respectful and appropriate processes in
the beginning that you try to actually avoid conflict and negotiation. I mean it is not
that we are actually…Sorry, I really need to clarify that. It is not that I am
encouraging us to step back from negotiation. Negotiation is critical. But I am
saying, if you undertake respectful, sensitive processes, if you really understand who
it is that you need to work alongside with, so that your clients feel supported when
you are working with culturally diverse clients, if you have taken the time to support
and understand them, if interpreters are present, if you have made the commitments
and kept them throughout, that will have built a certain level of trust and it will have
established a relationship between that client and you. So effectively, that will have
avoided conflict. Negotiations will always be part of the process. We shouldn’t be
frightened of conflict. Conflict might be ever present, sometimes over the smallest
issues, but we must move quickly to solve that so that it doesn’t fester and become a
major issue. However, I am actually and actively encouraging you to set appropriate,
sound processes in place so that in fact you are avoiding conflict because you have set
up such good processes and work styles that you are not setting out to do that. I
guess, sometimes a way of not respecting people from different cultural backgrounds
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might be to arrive at their house and not knock at the door and simply to barge
straight into the household. It might be to sit there in a room of elderly women from a
range of different communities with your feet up on the table, chewing gum.
Now all these are perhaps extreme examples I am giving you but workers have
actually done this from time to time and they are disrespectful practices. So, it is
really about looking at putting in place respectful processes that build to good, solid
relationship building rather than allowing conflict to occur. Set the agenda, as I am
saying, so that misunderstandings are avoided.
Really, I wish you every success in all of your future work endeavours.
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