Cross-Cultural Considerations for Social Work Practice:

Abstract

In the United States, our increasing populations of ethnic and racial minorities suffering with severe mental illnesses require culturally sensitive and culturally appropriate mental health services. The multiple facets of work involving culturally diverse individuals with severe mental illness challenge social work faculty to prepare students with salient, useful knowledge and skills. This teaching module, which utilizes the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia: Five-year follow-up findings (Leff et al., 1992) is applicable to practice, human behavior in the social environment, and policy courses. The module examines the findings of a large scale, longitudinal study of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia in nine countries. The learning process encourages students to think critically about the cross-cultural applicability of western diagnosis, treatment, and service provision models, to learn more about cultural constructions of illness and well-being, and to explore the nature of systemic and other barriers that prevent individuals with severe mental illness from obtaining services.