11/2/17 1 Recognizing and Relying on African American Cultural Strengths in Behavioral Health Treatment MARRCH Fall Conference, 10/30-11/1/2017 Jonathan Lofgren, Ph.D., LADC, CCDP-D Outline: Keep It 100 1. What is ‘African American’? What is African American culture? 2. Examine Black identity, racism & bias, and the current socio-political environment in which we live Ø Speed thinking debriefing reactions 3. Identify 7 Psychological Strengths of African Americans 4. Discuss promising practice in working with African Americans • Some themes and ideas may be sensitive National Anthem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_lCmBvYMRs
Transcript
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Recognizing and Relying on African American Cultural Strengths in Behavioral
Health Treatment
MARRCH Fall Conference, 10/30-11/1/2017
Jonathan Lofgren, Ph.D., LADC, CCDP-D
Outline: Keep It 100 !1. What is ‘African American’? What is African
American culture? 2. Examine Black identity, racism & bias, and the
current socio-political environment in which we live Ø Speed thinking debriefing reactions
3. Identify 7 Psychological Strengths of African Americans
4. Discuss promising practice in working with African Americans
• Some themes and ideas may be sensitive
National Anthem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_lCmBvYMRs
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Colin Kaepernick
Black Lives Matter & The NRA
African American
• An American of African and especially Black African descent • A person that self-identifies as African American • A Black person born in the United States
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Not Your Negro
James Baldwin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNUYdgIyaPM
Results of Racism
Racism results in:
– Media images which continually target and emphasize negative aspects of the African American community
– Institutional inequality of services and access to services in education, law, employment, housing, finance/economic, and social service
– Overt acts including discrimination, segregation, and hate crimes
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Results in Self-Hatred
African American racial self-hate and self-identity issues result in:
– Acceptance of European standards of beauty that denigrate African American complexions and hair textures
– Undefined cultural “laws” of ethnic purity and intolerance of bi-racial heritages and inter-racial relationships
– Divisions of class that African Americans impose on one another based on levels of education and levels of social status
Black Identity
• Nigger; an expression of self-hatred?? Def Poetry - Julian Curry – Niggers, Niggas & Niggaz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD-UpHlB9no • Black Doll � White Doll Kiri Davis: A Girl Like Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybDa0gSuAcg
• Person is a “case” or a “diagnosis” • Intervention is problem focused • The expert interprets the client’s story to arrive at a diagnosis • ACES & Childhood trauma predicts later pathology
• Practitioner develops a treatment plan for the individual • Professional is expert concerning client’s life • The skills of the professional are the primary resource for the work to be done
Avoid the Pathology Approach
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Seven Psychological Strengths
Dr. Joseph White, the Godfather of Black Psychology
�Opportunity does not always come to black people, what we have to do is go out, find it, claim it, make it, and take it!���
Strength #2 - Resilience
• Rebound from set-back
• Get up after knock down �In the Black experience, one cannot achieve
psychological maturity until they pay their dues and come through the storm�
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Strength #3 - Connectedness
• Family – Extended Family • Strong Peer Relationships • Intimate Relationships • Mentors
�Human closeness is a deeper need than sex�
Strength #4 - Spirituality
• Soul Force • Affirming Force • Vitality Force • Hope Force
�More important than church or established religion, there is a spiritual theme that runs through the Black experience.��
Strength #5 – Emotional Vitality
• Zest for Life • Exuberance • Life-style • Swag
�You can hear that vitality in our music� Ø https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPMeDoOZ-
L8?
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Strength #6 – Gallows Humor
• The Ability to Laugh and Cry as we move through the storm
Strength #7 – A Healthy Suspicion of You-Know-Who
• Not Black Paranoia • Cautionary tale • Trust is not easy to earn, not freely given • Loyalty is prized
African American Resilience • Church • Strong Traditions and Values • Extended Family • Kwanzaa Principles (self-determination, cooperation, faith) • Gender fluency; youth are socially engaged • Cultural and Racial Awareness • Education and Science • Health Care Access • Advocacy, grass-roots and organized, social and political resistance & progressive movement “To the American Negro, the word wait has almost always meant never” MLK
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The New Millennium
• There are not more African American men in Prison than in College • Urban school districts re-segregating at alarming rates • High School graduation rates hover around 50% compared to 80% of White majority • Diminishing Black Enterprise & Institutions • Bio-Social-Political-Economic disparities continue to exist at ever more alarming rates • Resurgence of the ‘ideology of white supremacy’ as a social and political movement
New Word Definition
• “Cultural Fluency” is the understanding and effective use of the hidden cultural currents of communications. It’s how effective communicators use language to connect with others, how they break and transcend rules, and how they feel and flow in communication
• The ability to work naturally within the context of a given culture
CONNECTION + CULTURE + LANGUAGE
Working with African Americans in Treatment
• Become aware of the historical and current experiences of being an African-American in America
• Consider value and cultural differences between African Americans and other ethnic groups and how your own personal values influence the way you interact with the client
• Include the value system of the client in the goal-setting process. Be sensitive to spiritual values and the value of the family and the church
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Working with African Americans in Treatment (2)
• Be sensitive and flexible to variations in the African-American norms due to normal adaptations to stress
• Be aware of ineffective verbal/nonverbal communication. Become familiar with nonstandard English, and accept its use by clients
• Be aware that your target population might become so narrow that it is exclusive
• Consider the client’s problem in the large context. Include extended family, other significant individuals and the community
Working with African Americans in Treatment (3)
• Consider how to make the program attractive to African Americans and other minorities
• Learn to acknowledge and be comfortable with the client’s cultural differences
• Consider the appropriateness of specific therapeutic models or interventions to specific African American clients
• Anger and PTSD as it relates trauma experienced as a result of economic depression and racism need to be addressed.
• Person is unique with talents and resources • Intervention is possibility focused The practitioner knows the client through their interpretation of events and meanings -not ours • ACES & Childhood trauma may contribute to strengths or weaknesses of the individual
• Client’s, families, and communities’ aspirations are the focus of the work to be done • Individuals, families, and communities are viewed as the experts • Help focused on getting on with one’s life
The Strengths Perspective
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Promising Practices
• Holistic Health • Multidisciplinary Approaches; IDDT • Motivational Approaches • Trauma Focused Approaches • Black Professional Workforce Development • Contingency Management & Culturally Meaningful Incentives • Continuity of Drug Court Teams (community providers and court professionals) • Developing Standards for Faith-Based Providers
Promising Practices
• Black Effective Parenting • Relapse Prevention for African Americans • Clinical Supervision • Community Engagement • Prevention Re-visited • Person-Centered & Strength-based Approaches • Family Involvement • Cultural Fluency/Proficiency/Competency
Advice for Counseling Staff
Some guidelines that counseling staff should use in approaching racial identity:
– Recognize the highly charged and extremely volatile nature of these issues
– First explore racial identity issues on a one-to-one basis
– Refrain from “exposing” African American clients in an all-white setting, allow for client autonomy
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Advice for Counseling Staff
– Be aware of your frames of reference – Acknowledge the existence of clients’ racial
issues – Working through your own racial issues – Give African American clients the opportunity to
explore their racial identities and experience – Refrain from over-empathizing with clients about
racial issues – Address racial issues openly and on a regular
basis – Don’t say “my best friend is black”
Three Giant Steps The culturally competent professional
1. Self-awareness
• Denial, political correctness and professionalism are enemies of transformative inventory
• We must work to meet in the contradiction of bias and lived experience
• People are more complex than their perceived cultural attributes
Three Giant Steps The culturally competent professional
2. Develop a way of knowing
• Cultural experience and immersion
• Confront formal, informal and technical learning's that do not align with experience
• Must overcome fears to achieve
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Three Giant Steps The culturally competent professional
3. Practice, practice, practice • Cultural learning and competence is an evolutionary process
• If you don�t succeed the first time, try, try again
• Will involve some degree of risk and shared vulnerability between client and practitioner
Some Black Literature • Michele Alexander – The New Jim Crow • Maya Angelou - numerous • James Baldwin – Go Tell it on the Mountain • Ta-Nehisi Coates – Between the World and Me • WEB DuBois - numerous • Michael Eric Dyson – The Reader • Mahmoud El-Kati - Hiptionary • Ralph Ellison – The Invisible Man • Frantz Fannon – The Wretched of the Earth • President Barack Obama – The Audacity of Hope • Walter Mosley - numerous • Toni Morrison - numerous • Dr. Joseph White – The Psychology of Blacks • Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns • Deborah Willis – BLACK, a celebration of culture • Spokesman Recorder & Insight News Papers “To educate a man is to unfit him to be a slave” Fredrick Douglass
Review and Discussion
• Black Identity • Social and Cultural Dynamics • Strengths • Promising Practice Ø What did I get out of this session? Ø What questions do I have? Ø What am I going to do with all of this?
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ReferencesSAMHSA TIP 59 – Improving Cultural Competence (2014)
White, J. (1990, 2005) The Psychology of Blacks
Cross, T., Bazron, B., Dennis, K., & Isaacs, M. (1989). Toward a culturally competent system of care: A monograph on effective services for minority children who are severely emotionally disturbed. Washington, DC: National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health.
Hernandez, M. Nesman, T., Isaacs, M., Callejas, L. M., & Mowery, D. (Eds.). (2006). Examining the research base supporting culturally competent children’s mental health services. Tampa, FL: USF, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, Research & Training Center for Children’s Mental Health.
Kao, H. S., Hsu, M. T., & Clark, L. (2004). Conceptualizing and critiquing culture in health research. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 15, 269-277.
Masi, R., & Cooper, J. (2006, November). Children’s Mental Health Facts for Policymakers. http://nccp.org/publications/pub_687.html#10
Sources & Citations • The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), http://www.sprc.org/library/black.am.facts.pdf • Georgetown National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) • Elkati, M. (2008). Hiptionary • The Center for the Improvement of Child Care (CICC) • African American Family Services, Technical Assistance Center • YouTube – various movie trailers • Kiri Davis Family
