The article revolves around using cultural competence to solve various crises in life. I agree with Dykeman (2005) that most personal crises emanate from anticipated life-affecting events, and thus, it may sometimes be challenging to control them. Cultural elements play an indispensable role in influencing the best approaches and mechanisms interveners can use to help crisis victims. For instance, rejection or stigmatization experienced in a person’s culture adds injury to the irritating events. Therefore, crisis interveners should embrace cultural competence to transform and integrate knowledge about the victims into practices, standards, and attitudes that align with cultural settings to enhance the quality of counseling services.
It is often essential to internalize the meaning of the word “culture” to understand the role of norms, traditions, and values in affecting individuals’ interactions, behavior, judgments, and thinking in their world. Concurring with Dykeman (2005), the crisis interveners often have immediate demands placed upon them, thus unconsciously ignoring cultural aspects such as identity that define crisis victims. In my view, interveners should start by developing trust between them and the victims. In this way, the latter can air their grievances openly, thus assisting the former in pursuing coping mechanisms that not only address victims’ needs but also align with their cultural values. Generally, people adapt to various situations by equipping them with the knowledge that assists them to fit in their cultural system. In line with the listening modality, I also believe an intervener must define the existing problem, safeguard the client’s safety, offer support, assess alternatives, develop plans, and remain committed to the mediation strategies. The crisis intervention process should be inclusive and in-depth to attain a healthy adjustment pathway that creates a new life for a victim after a traumatic event.
Counselors and interveners rely on personality and environmental factors to strengthen coping mechanisms and resilience among the crisis victims. However, they often neglect the cultural context of the traumatic events despite their influence in assessing the victims’ circumstances. This ignorance results in short-lived solutions due to the lack of awareness of existing cultural biases. Consequently, professionals need to utilize the culturally competent framework that informs their consciousness of cultural assumptions and identify resources from the victims’ culture that can help resolve the crisis and enhance recovery.
Reference
Dykeman, B. F. (2005). Cultural implications of crisis intervention. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 32(1), 45-48. Web.