Journal
AUSTRALIAN SOCIAL WORK
Volume 66, Issue 1, Pages 104-117Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/0312407X.2012.697566
Keywords
Indigenous Social Work; Indigenous Child Protection; Culture; Culturally Competent Social Work; Trauma; Indigenous Knowledge
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The consistent failure of initiatives aimed at addressing discrepancies between Australia's Aboriginal and non Aboriginal citizens point to a need to address responses to Aboriginal people by mainstream service providers. This practice paper draws on the experience of Aboriginal and non Aboriginal practitioners in the trauma field to consider the limitations and potential of cultural competence as a construct for working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Key limitations are the lack of accounting for the trauma and ongoing racism experienced by Aboriginal people, which result in isolation of communities, protection of abusers, and under-use of mainstream services by Aboriginal people. When trauma and racism are addressed, successful and respectful engagement with Aboriginal individuals and communities becomes possible and the potential of cultural competency initiatives can be realised. A three-step process for achieving this at the personal, practice, and agency levels, which has been developed in a collaboration by Aboriginal and non Aboriginal practitioners, is outlined.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available