Cultural and Social Diversity in Behavioral Health BHS-330 PDF

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Describe ethnocentrism and the relationship to cultural encapsulation. How will ethnocentrism influence paraprofessionals in the behavioral health field? Hello, my fellow classmates According to this excerpt from the text: “Also referred to as ethnocentrism, cultural encapsulation is the narrow and rigid view of the world and other cultural groups that ensues when one uses one’s own cultural groups as a reference and standard of normality. This attitude could impair a client’s well-being, lead to early termination of counseling services, or both.” (Hays & Mcleod, 2018) Multicultural counseling falls under psychotherapy and given how closely tied together ethnocentrism and cultural encapsulation are it is not a wonder that there is overlap. That being said however, there are many cultures that fall into the bracket of cultural encapsulation. For example, America is a melting pot of race, ethnicity, and culture. When you have two people whose religions and cultures are different from another that are forced to work together even if they do not get along, let us just say that it probably will not end well. This is why certain rules have been set in place such as “A.1.a, which states: “the primary responsibility of counselors is to respect the dignity and promote the welfare of clients” (“American Counseling Association,” 2014). Simply put, a counselor’s job is to put aside their own beliefs in order to best help the people that they work with. If, however you have two cultures that clash and the counselor is unable to put aside their own emotions and beliefs and it is obvious to the patient and they start disagreeing on the subject material instead of working with why the person was there seeking help in the first place, the counselor will find themselves in violation of this code. In the behavioral health field there is a well-known and widely accepted set of rules for each culture. This is the case for everyone whether they are the receptionist, client, patient, founder, doctor, counselor, or the psychiatrist. The counselor can expect any number of these to be exhibited at any time. This can also cause them to enter a counseling session with a preconceived image of what the patient will be like. This might be helpful, but it may also be a surprise to the counselor when the patient is different than what they expected. This can also happen when two people each of a different culture clash and are unable to work together. This is a situation where the counselor needs to be the bigger person and set aside their own issues with the patient in order to best help the patient. When the counselor does not do this however, several less than desirable things occur. The counselor can find themselves suspended or without a job. The patient does not get the help they need from this person. No One Wins. Using America as an example the demographic of our society and the people in it are constantly changing. To truly be a competent behavioral health professional must constantly be educating themselves to keep up to date with what is going and the repercussions that incident could have that could affect any number of their patients in any way. Sincerely Felicia Turner Resources

Hays, D., & Erford, B. (2018). Developing multicultural counseling competence: A systems approach (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. ISBN-13: 9780134523804...