Mental Health and Recovery Board

1. Mental Health and Recovery Board “Building Bridges to Recovery: Embracing Local Cultures” LaVina Miller Weaver, RN, PCC-S

2. Objectives 1. Identify cultural competence as a tool for decreasing stigma related to mental illness and substance abuse 2. Develop an understanding of how local culture impacts communication, services access, and service delivery

4. Five “stages” of Trans-cultural competence The ability to discover another’s “way of knowing.” Trans-cultural CompetencyFrom “Trans-cultural Counseling” by John McFadden

5. Ethnoentropy We are alienated from our own cultural identity… understand little of self or own culture Stage I

6. Avoid other ethnic groups and cultures when possible, great discomfort, not yet able to move “toward” Alienated from self/other live out our rejected cultural identity Unable to accept own cultural identity Stage I cont’d

7. Stage II Ethnocentrism • We believe in the inherent superiority of our own culture • We see other cultures as inferior or “wrong”

8. Stage III Ethnosyncretism • We begin awareness and acceptance of our own cultural base • Dualistic thinking starts being challenged..we/they • What we used to think… no longer fits/works • Faith crisis… image of God changes

9. Stage III cont’d • We begin accepting outside perspectives and critiques on our own culture without defending • Greater capacity to “contain” differences • Less need to correct • No longer need to see things right or wrong… but as “different” or “not yet understood” • Capacity to listen increases

10. Stage III cont’d • We begin accepting new ideas and practices from other cultures as well • May begin exploring new practices/actions • Moving from thought to experimenting …without sacrificing or rejecting our own cultural identity • Early formation of transcultural core

11. Stage IV Transethnicity • We move beyond, or across, our own ethnic group to significantly experienceanother ethnic group or person • Have an encounter/experience that shifts the core • New way of thinking becomes more comfortable • Relationships may change

12. Stage V Panethnicity • We have developed a transcendent world view • Anchored and flexible in new understandings • Willing to dialogue, find common ground, explore • Hold ourselves and our world more lightly

13. We view ourselves as members of ethnic groups of the world • We are only a part of a whole instead of the whole • Can “adopt” from beyond earlier constraints

14. Stage V cont’d There is a sense of sharing a common global culture as well as my own unique culture We are now free to choose Integrating from our own heritage is now a choice

15. Characteristics of Trans-Cultural Competence • Belief that all persons are worthy • Regardless how feeble, how strong, how impaired • Understands people as unique individuals • Value discovery of others • Is learning from others while also giving to others…great sense of mutuality and sharedness

16. Characteristics of Trans-Cultural Competence • Believe in the capacity of all people to develop their highest potential • Less of a need to compare • Great capacity to inspire others toward their best • See ethnicity as an opportunity for personal growth and understanding… • Great capacity learn and internalize experiences • Can allow themselves to be changed…ongoingly

17. Why Cultural Competence? 1. We will be far less likely to stigmatize, to disregard, to set others apart if we allow ourselves to grow toward cultural competence

18. Why Cultural Competence 2. Lack of cultural understanding can cause us to unintentionally violate and hurt our clients 3. It can keep people from seeking the help they may desire because they feel unsafe

19. Why Cultural Competence 4. We will be more likely to speak up when we hear people being disregarded, sidelined, or stigmatized

20. Our Community • 96.52% = White • 1.57% = Black • 0.16% = Native American • .66% = Asian • .75% = Hispanic/Latin • 40% ..speak German or Penn Dutch (Holmes and Wayne County)

21. The Heart of Amishness Donald B Kraybill, “The Riddle of Amish Culture” “On the Back Road to Heaven”

22. G e l l a s e n h e i t • A paradigm that under girds all of Amish Life Has ideas of Letting go, Surrender, Yielding

23. Gelassenheit • Gelassenheit orders the entire social structure…it forbids the use of force in human relationships

24. Dimensions of Gelassenheit from “The Riddle of Amish Culture” by Donald B. Kraybill

25. Gelassenheit/Modernity • Moderns value personal fulfillment and individual achievement • The way of Gelassenheit discovers fulfillment in community…and receives in return a durable and visible ethnic identity

26. Gelassenheit/Modernity • Amish work just as hard at losing themselves as moderns work at finding themselves • There is an ordered sense of doing things “right” and well…God watches all we do… if it is worth doing , it is worth doing it right

27. “The Shrinking Edges of Gelassenheit” • Toward individualism • Public recognition … signing name • Business Cards

28. The Shrinking Edges of Gelassenheit • However, • Obedience, humility, plainness, and simplicity remain powerful engines of resistance to dominant culture • The Amish, Don Krabill

29. "Upside-Down Values" • The individual is not the supreme reality • Communal goals transcend personal ones

30. "Upside-Down Values" • The past is as important as the future (persecution history) • Tradition is valued equally with change

31. Upside Down Values • Personal sacrifice is esteemed (and rewarded) over pleasure: . • Local involvement outweighs national acclaim

32. "Upside-Down Values" • Work is more satisfying than consumption: utilitarian culture • Obeying, waiting, and yielding are embraced • Newer, bigger, and faster are not better:

33. "Upside-Down Values" • Preservation eclipses progress • Staying together is the supreme value

34. Values • Larger family and extensive church ties • Accustomed to caring for their own • Defer to leadership/authority • Difficulty verbalizing if disagreeing with authority figure

35. Values • Stoic with emotional and physical pain • Concrete, detail orientation • Value face to face communication

36. Our Community • What is the impact of this population on our community??? • How has the community been shaped by this people??? • How does understanding this community impact the delivery of mental health care???

37. Our Community • Communication… language barriers • Service delivery…cultural competency • Service access…transportation issues • Values conflicts…cultural competency

38. Our Community • Dealing with a significant sub-culture while at the same time providing services for a larger culture. • Requires understanding of both the broader culture and the sub culture (Interest in sub culture can trump the need for understanding of the larger culture)

39. Our Community • The dynamics of our community with the Amish positions us uniquely for significant cultural training, and for contribution to the field of Transcultural Counseling.