What Is Cultural Competence?
Explores the building blocks of cultural competence including humilty, openness, and curiosity. Discusses how our language shapes our reality.
Most people, especially in the health and education fields are familiar with the term “cultural competence.” But, what is cultural competence composed of, and what are the often unstated suppositions that serve as the bedrock of cultural competence? First, what is cultural competence, or as my college professor of psychology of racism termed “cultural humility.” These two terms hold slightly different meanings, but I believe they get at the same thing.
What is cultural competence?
Cultural competence is made up of components that fall into three categories: 1) Self-awareness 2) Interpersonal connection 3) Attitudes.
Preemptive Love (2020) puts it simply,
“Cultural competence is the ability to understand and interact effectively with people from other cultures.”
Cultural competence requires us to build self-awareness around our biases, social position, and assumptions. Interpersonal connections include flexibility, true listening, dialogue, problem-solving, and working through misunderstandings. Attitudes include keeping an open mind and staying respectful.
You might be thinking, “Oh, right, this means I should just tolerate everyone.” Cultural competence or cultural humility invites people to look for authentic connection which comes from a shared understanding, rather than tolerance, which means you are putting up with a person or idea.
Humans literally see different things
Let’s take an example from neuroscience, in the South African language Xhosa. They don’t have a word for blue. So blue, in effect, does not exist in that culture. What English describes as blue, in Xhosa is luhlaza, or blue/green. Since language creates meaning, a large part of cultural competence must include an awareness of language. Language allows us to step into another worldview.
So, how does this translate to the mental health field? For example, in Andean communities in Peru, people use metaphors to describe what may be perceived in Western society as stress, anxiety, and tension (Pederson et al., 2010). Andean people in a focus group did not recognize ideas or words such as anxiety and tension, but instead used other Quechua words such as collective sorrow, melancholy, or pain such as headaches to express relational cut-offs and sadness, as expressed by the word pinsamientuwan. This means that language and meaning are inextricably linked. Mental health providers should remember that some words don't hold the same meaning in other cultures, or may even represent ideas that don't exist in other cultures.
But, what is culture?
So, you might be asking, “What does culture mean? I understand the competence part, listening, respecting, learning about the self and others. But, what exactly is a ‘culture?’” In the very literal world, culture embodies certain practices inhabited by a particular community. This could span linguistic, geographical and religious affiliations. Culture is encompassed by values and beliefs. You might then be asking, “Does that mean I have to accept everything any culture does?” One might say, for example, toxic masculinity is a cultural practice, as in, people from a particular group believe in its values and its practices. Does that mean if I am culturally competent, I must accept this practice? The answer is no. The reason is that the underlying aim of cultural competence is to share power.
Cultural understandings seek to share power
One understated piece of cultural competency is how it addresses power differences. The reason the health field, in particular, has made strides in training people about cultural competence is that marginalized groups often receive subpar care and inadequate attention which can result in increased mental stress, health complications, and even death. For example, most articles about cultural competence stress the lack of language interpreters in the mental health field. In the United States, the culturally dominant language is English, therefore the culturally competent response would be to provide quality services in Spanish, for example, since a large percentage of Spanish-speakers have been underserved in healthcare.
Social workers and cultural competence
Cultural competence aligns social workers to our code of ethics. In addition to attending to the mental health needs of our clients, we are tasked with encouraging social justice and non-harm. Our stance must be reflective, open, and respectful. Again, that does not mean that any act committed by any culture can be accepted. It does, however, mean that as professionals, we will do our due diligence to improve the mental health of our clients through respecting and understanding their cultural perspectives.
Resources
Pederson, D., Kienzler, H., & Gamarra, J. (2010). Llaki and ñakari: Idioms of distress and suffering among the highland Quechua in the Peruvian Andes.Cultural Medicine and Psychiatry. 34:279–300. DOI: 10.1007/s11013-010-9173-z
Preemptive Love. (2020, January 23). What is cultural competence? And why is it important?