Cultural Competence In Australia

Australia is a very culturally diverse country, meaning that it consists of many cultures and ethnicities from around the world. This diversity is mostly due to immigration,

‘75% of Australians identified with an ancestry other than Australian in the 2011 Census. 43% have at least one parent who has born overseas. 30% of the population were born in another country. In all, Australians come from over 200 birthplaces.’ http://www.racismnoway.com.au/about-racism/population/

Cultural competence is defined as possessing the skills and knowledge necessary to appreciate, respect, and work with individuals from different cultures. It is a concept that requires self-awareness, awareness and understanding of cultural differences, and the ability to adapt to clinical skills and practices as needed

Auburn is a suburb in western Sydney in the state of New South Wales Australia which had major changes that occurred over the years, the three major changes are transport population and culture.

In our today’s society, we are faced with multiple cultures that affect our ways of thinking, acting, and leaving. Cultural competency reflects one’s culture. Culture reflects the way the children are raised, their way of communicating, what is acceptable or not acceptable, the way they overcome challenges, their clothes, and how we go about medical treatment and so on. I know because I come from a very strong cultural background where it is considered bad to look at older people straight in the eyes while talking to them. Culture can be defined as “the learned and shared beliefs, values and life ways of a designated or particular group that are generally transmitted intergenerational and influence one’s thinking and action modes” (Leininger, 2002).

Some of the author’s major points are the lack of understanding of what cultural competence really means which is bringing confusion about ways it can be utilized in the social work field. The confusion of the utilization of cultural competence is leading to the lack of consensus concerning the effective training that providers should obtain and the population being served with the cultural competence skills lack clear description. According to the author, the most popular cultural competence intervention in the healthcare system is the cultural competency training which is for health care providers and the two approaches that have been utilized in creating the intervention are; the programs aimed at improving knowledge which is group specific,

Arthur H. Woodard, Jr., MSW Soulhelp@me.com Jim Wuelfing, NRPP Jim.Wuelfing@gmail.com  Name?  From where?  Doing what?  Why here?

Cultural competence is defined by Stewart and Denisco (2015) as “the demonstration of knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors based on diverse and relevant cultural experiences” (p. 113). Cultural competence should manifest itself in the presence of cultural competence behaviors. These are the observable actions that grow out of increased experiences with diversity, gains in awareness, and refinement of sensitivity to the beliefs and values of others (Srewart & Denisco, 2015).

“Cultural competence is the ability to engage in actions or create conditions that maximize the optimal development of client and client systems” (Sue & Sue, 2013, p. 49). Multicultural competence includes a counselor to be aware of his or her biases, knowledge of the culture they are evaluating, and skills to evaluate a client with various backgrounds (Sue & Sue, 2013). Client assessment involves gathering information pertaining to the client’s condition. Making a culturally responsive diagnosis involves using the DSM-IV-TR axis (Hays, 2008). Following the axis backwards is ideal to discovering the client’s diagnosis, understanding the client’s ADDRESSING outline will help to come to a closer resolution

Campinha- Bacote and colleagues describes the components for cultural competence in healthcare. These includes cultural ; a) knowledge, b) awareness, c) skills, d) encounter and e) desire. Cultural awareness refers to self-examination as well as in-depth exploration of an individual cultural as well as professional background. I am able to explore my own cultural healthcare values and beliefs. This is because understanding another person's does not guarantee that one will become cultural competent. I am now able to use the cultural awareness assessment to assess my personal level of cultural awareness, and to get an insight on the understanding of my cultural values and beliefs

Australia is one of the most multicultural Countries in the world, with almost half of Australia’s current population being born in another Country (ABS, 2017).

Being competent with other cultures means that you can tolerate and understand those cultures. Many people fear this because they think that will have to change, and, to some, change is bad, but I can assure these people that change can be good. Learning about different cultures and tolerating them can be, in fact, fun.

Australia’s population is culturally and ethnically diverse. As at June 2010, there were 22.3 million residents in Australia, around one-quarter of the population was born overseas and many residents who were born in Australia have a parent who was born in another country. Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders represent 2.3% of the population

Cultural Competence following on from the above selection from the reference is the ongoing external learning we as educators require to continual learning the difference and the changes to each and every culture. We as educators need to be up to date with the cultures to then pass these onto our children and teach them the ways and the diverse world we live in. We may know of hand what each culture does but it not until you demonstrate the willingness to dig deep underneath the surface as to how they live etc. to reflect this is your educating curriculum. Practices such as celebrating certain days and educating the children are reliant on their abilities to learn and accept those of other cultures and to do this it starts with the educators

'Cross Cultural Competence ' is and should be the aim of all those dealing with multicultural clients, customers or colleagues. 'Competence ' is the final stage of cross cultural understanding and signifies the actor 's ability to work effectively across cultures. Cross cultural competency is beyond knowledge, awareness and sensitivity in that it is the digestion, integration and transformation of all the skills and information acquired through them, applied to create cultural synergy within the workplace.