Cultural Intelligence and Its Impact on Clinical Social Work

This report delves into the concept of cultural intelligence within the context of clinical social work practice. It addresses a clinical example involving a client experiencing anxiety and psychic trauma related to language barriers, specifically the inability to speak Spanish fluently. The report explores the research question of how anxiety can be reduced or overcome, referencing evidence-based practices and the role of cultural differences. It examines the impact of culture on client experiences, highlighting how language and societal norms can affect communication and mental health. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding cultural nuances to mitigate conflicts and promote effective communication in social work, ultimately aiming to improve client well-being by addressing psychological disorders and anxieties. The report also provides references to relevant books and journals to support its findings.

Cultural Intelligence
for Clinical Social
Work Practice
Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Provide answers to following questions:............................................................................1
2. Research question related to problem, target and goal.......................................................1
3. Reflection about ways in which culture may impact experiences of a client.....................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4
Books & Journals:............................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Cultural intelligence is about the people feeling emotional. Emotions, needs and wants of
individuals are included in this and governed by values, beliefs, attitudes and body language
(Thomas, David C). There are different kinds of human being sharing variety of cultures with
each other. This report explains the answers to various questions which are based on suggested
clinical example, research question related to problem, target and goal, ways in which culture
may impact a client experiences followed by identification of problems and assumptions of a
social worker on cultural groups.
MAIN BODY
1. Provide answers to following questions:
(a). In this example, it has been observed that client has faced the problem of anxiety on the
occasions when he has to respond to another person in Spanish. This issues arose at a very tender
age when he used to go to school and did not find the desired environment of talking in Spanish.
This led to forgetting his own mother tongue and now he does not feel confident to converse in
the above-mentioned language. The panic attacks started to get serious and worse with the time
which transformed his condition resulting to psychic trauma. It has been faced by him many a
times earlier and he still face these attacks.
(b). The problem identified in this question is about the anxiety and psychic trauma which is
connected with psychology of the client. Everything is connected to the brain as it controls the
functions in a human body (Spielberger, Charles, ed.). It is very important for a person to keep
the mental health good and strong. The state of mind should be made good in order to bring
improvements in the condition of the client. Therefore, it is significant for the social worker to
understand the psychology of the client in order to get into the details.
(c). The target specified above should have certain actions and objectives which have to achieved
to get the final outcomes. For this case, the goal for anxiety and psychic trauma is that therapies
and medications along with exercises are needs to be attained. This can be done with the help of
a qualified doctor or nurse who can help the client overcoming this. Furthermore, the client can
try to learn and speak Spanish for removing the fear or clearly say others that he does not know
Spanish.
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2. Research question related to problem, target and goal
Research question: Is anxiety a serious problem and how can it be reduced or
overcome?
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a practice or framework which gathers scientific evidence for
providing guidance and help in decision making (Babcock, Rebecca Day and Terese Thonus).
Anxiety is a disorder which is connected with psychology of human being. It is of many kind
which can establish in different conditions and in the case of the client gets panic attack while
speaking Spanish. This problem has increase with the time am transforming it to a phobia which
made the concerned person nervous and lose confidence while using the language mentioned
above. The evidence for the same can be collected from the test reports. These reflect the current
condition of a person by considering which proper medication and other facilities can be given
for improving the mental health. In this case, the actual cause can be seen from the perspective of
culture. Every society has different culture which are followed by the people of respective
cultures. The differences between these should be reduced in order to mitigate the adverse
impact on the mental health of a person. This can cause anxiety to reach a significant level where
it cannot be corrected without the help of treatment. Furthermore, the target is to determine the
reasons for anxiety. For this, some goals are to be prepared based on the evidence collected about
the current situation and right decisions can be taken which can help the client come out of the
anxiety and lead a healthy life.
3. Reflection about ways in which culture may impact experiences of a client
Culture refers to characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing
language, religion social habits and many more similar things. There are different beliefs and
social norms of the people living in a society which should be followed by everyone (Lim,
Nangyeon). Language is one of the most important factor which creates differences among the
people belonging to different categories. In this case, the client faced problem of anxiety and
panic attacks while having conversation in Spanish. This is because of culture that he had in the
place growing up. Difference between the cultures may bring the problem of understanding and
speaking of various languages. This cause major hurdle in in communication and exchange of
information or facts. To have effective communication, it is important to fix a common language
which is known and spoken by every individual living in a particular society. All the individuals
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belong to their own culture having the knowledge of the language or big leaves pertaining to that
particular culture. This may affect the experience of a person in positive as well as negative. For
instance, the influence turned out to be negative as the client did not get the environment of the
people in the neighbourhood who speak Spanish. This caused problem in having conversation
with the people who do not know this language.
The main issue about different culture is that there is no common language or base which
can be used by everyone. This can result in many adverse situations. The main issue which arises
is about talking to each other and make understand things one wants to convey.
Miscommunication or the gap between two languages should be minimized. This can be done
bye setting goals such as deciding common language which is understood by both the parties so
that conversation can be done without any difficulty.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that there are different cultures even in a small
area. This comprises of variety of languages, beliefs, moral values and norms. Usually, every
individual wish to put their own culture at top which results in conflicts between each other.
Therefore, a common base should be decided which can be used by every individual living in a
particular society. It is about the psychology of a person which can be affected in a negative way.
Hence, it helps in keeping the stress, anxiety and other psychological disorders or illnesses at
bay.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals:
Thomas, David C. "Cultural intelligence." Wiley Encyclopedia of Management (2015): 1-3.
Spielberger, Charles D., ed. Anxiety and behavior. Academic Press, 2013.
Babcock, Rebecca Day, and Terese Thonus. Researching the writing center: Towards an
evidence-based practice. Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, 2018.
Lim, Nangyeon. "Cultural differences in emotion: differences in emotional arousal level between
the East and the West." Integrative medicine research 5, no. 2 (2016): 105-109.
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