I have been brought up in a way to respect everyone regarding their culture, race, sex, age, and gender. I treat all people equally with respect even though they are all different and come from different backgrounds and upbringings. I have never imposed my beliefs and values on anyone because I feel that everyone should be allowed to have their own choices on what they believe and their values and I in reality I respect them. This why I believe that it is acceptable to speak a language other than English, I feel that a great benefit for me because I am multilingual.
I feel that I am a very open minded person and also non-biased and when I become a social worker I feel that I will be able to accept my clients decisions as to a degree to which they choose to acculturate into the dominant culture.
For my placement I know that I will be introduced to people from all different walks of life, I also know that I will be introduced to people who choose different lifestyles such as their sexuality. I have no problem at all accepting and providing services to clients who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or any other. I feel that I have no right to discriminate anyone because they should be able to empower themselves and be able to make the right choices for themselves with support from everyone.
I also feel that I have really strong views against insensitive behaviour which could either harm the clients or others including myself. I feel that in a situation like these imperative skills like remaining calm and level-headed are vital because I know that I can respond in this way.
I understand clearly that there are many barriers in communication within social work due to factors considering language and disabilities. I feel that the main barriers are people who have limited English skills or different accents but I believe that they have the same intellectual capacity as anyone else. They may be very capable of communicating clearly and effectively in their own language.
Overall I consider thinking that cultural competence is something that is gained through a lot of skills and knowledge which comes after plenty of time and practice. I feel that I still have a lot to learn and that I will gain a lot of knowledge and key factors from my placement for my future practices in social work.
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