Mandated Reporter Training - Unit 3

Culturally Competent Practices for Child Protective Caseworkers

1. As Mandated Reporters, you should call to make a report or run your concern by an intake worker if you are concerned about the welfare of a child.
2. The US Department of Health and Human Services offers these guidelines for culturally competent practice for Child Protective Caseworkers.

• Cultural awareness. Understanding and identifying the critical cultural values important to children and the family as well as to the caseworker.
• Knowledge acquisition. Understanding how these cultural values function as strengths in children and the family.
• Skill development. Matching services that support the identified cultural values and then incorporating them into appropriate interventions.
• Inductive learning. Seeking solutions that consider indigenous interventions as well as match cultural values to Western interventions.

3. The practice implications for CPS caseworkers include that they are asked to:

• Respect how clients differ from them;
• Avoid judgments and decision-making resulting from biases, myths, or stereotypes;
• Ask the client about a practice’s history and meaning if unfamiliar with it;
• Elicit information from the client regarding strongly held family traditions, values, and beliefs, especially child rearing practices;
• Understanding the family’s cultural values, principles of child development, child caring norms, and parenting strategies;
• Gaining clarity regarding the family’s perceptions of the responsibilities of adults and children in the extended family and community network;
• Determining the family’s perceptions of the impact of child abuse or neglect.
• Assessing each risk factor with consideration of characteristics of the cultural or ethnic group;
• Explaining why a culturally accepted behavior in the family’s homeland may be illegal here.

4. Translators: We must be aware of how translators are utilized:

• Individuals who cannot communicate with caseworkers in their primary language may not be able to convey their needs or circumstances accurately.
• A child or family member may appear uncooperative, when, in reality, he or she does not fully understand what is being asked.
• Not using nonvictimized children as translators because the information collected may be distressing for them.
• Not using family members or friends as translators because they may break confidentiality or pose other risks to the victim.
• Hiring bilingual staff and translating resource material to help address this issue.

 

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