Cultural Competence Analysis

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Introduction The purpose of this essay is to look at what benefits will be had on mental health services if they are culturally competent, the text will discuss what is meant by cultural competence and how this can impact on mental health services. There will be a discussion as to how the model of cultural competence fits into the holistic model of mental health and will look at wether developing cultural competence could improve mental health services, and the text will conclude with a brief discussion of what the future may require in order to develop culturally competent mental health services. In order to make a case for culturally competent mental health services it is first necessary to discuss what is meant by the term cultural competence,…show more content…
In order to enable people to understand the theory more effectively a model was developed that goes through four separate stages, the first stage of the model is cultural awareness, this involves examining your own values and beliefs, Popadopalus also believes that by examining the construction of cultural identity and how this has an impact upon our mental health beliefs and practices is a necessary part of developing cultural…show more content…
this in itself tells us that a cultural competent mental health service will be a process that is not going to be over a short period of time, and it is focused upon developing skills in assessment and diagnosis as well as other clinical skills because its primary target is health professionals. (Open University 2010) A mental health service that is deemed to be culturally competent would therefore be one that has developed its staff and practices over a period of time, the service would value all those involved clients and staff, irrespective of race culture or any other factor and one of the most important factors is that there should be no them and us
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