Embracing Our Differences: Cultural Competence and Awareness
You may not know who Israel Zangwill is, but you certainly are familiar with the term he coined to describe the United States: the melting pot. In fact, his play by the same name was wildly popular in the early 1900s. It delivered a message of love, acceptance, and belonging among different ethnicities.
Today, the idea of a melting pot, where everyone’s differences merge together into one identity, is shifting. A more accurate representation to many is that of a salad bowl. Salad ingredients are brought together, but still maintain their own unique distinctions. This is particularly relevant for our LGBT community who need to proudly maintain their self-identity with the respect and dignity they deserve.
Why Cultural Competence, Sensitivity, and Awareness Is So Important
The best way to understand and interact effectively with others is by shifting our focus to try to view life from their perspective. Sensitivity training is becoming part of new employee on-boarding in many organizations, and is especially vital in the health care and home care industries where it provides numerous benefits, including:
- Increased respect and empathy toward others
- Creative ideas and problem-solving
- Alleviated prejudices and stereotypes
- Better communication
- And more
Training varies to some degree, but should include elements such as:
- Addressing the subtle and invisible differences between cultures
- Learning how to act and respond in a variety of culturally-specific situations (also known as “global dexterity”)
- Cultural congruence as well as cultural differentiation
In considering cultural sensitivity training, it’s important to ensure that how a person self-identifies is a key component. The ultimate goal is to be able to correct any misunderstandings among different cultures and lifestyles and relate more effectively to each other.
Changes You Can Implement Today
While your home care provider should be including cultural competence, sensitivity, and awareness training to their staff, there are steps you can take as an individual as well, including:
- Strike up actual conversations. Our high-tech world has shifted everyone’s eyes downward to their electronic devices. Look up and speak up! Even simply smiling and saying hello to someone in line with you at the grocery store shows you are caring, nonjudgmental, and accepting of differences.
- Listen more to learn about different viewpoints. With so many hot topics to disagree about these days, it’s more important than ever to listen to each other. Cultural competency involves not being afraid to ask questions and to listen with interest to the other person’s response and perspective.
- Share life experiences. Invite someone you know whose cultural or lifestyle background is different from yours to an activity that celebrates your own background.
- Accept invitations to events that celebrate theirs. In doing so, you’ll enrich both of your lives.
Adopting an attitude of awareness and acceptance of each other is crucial to making our world one where everyone feels safe and comfortable in unashamedly being who they want to be. We each have a role to play, for ourselves and in advocacy of those we love. When it comes to selecting a home care provider for an older adult in your life, be sure to ask if caregivers receive cultural competence and sensitivity training. Make sure that this training includes a focus on the LGBT population: the next, current-day frontier for diversity and inclusiveness training.
Right at Home, the top provider of home care in Nokomis and throughout all of Sarasota County, provides professionally trained, LGBT-friendly, certified senior care services. The entire Right at Home Sarasota team (executive, administrative, and caregivers ) received extensive cultural sensitivity training by Sage, earning a certification in LGBT cultural competency.
Contact us at (941) 929-1966 for a free in-home consultation to discuss your care needs or concerns.
