Foster Care Training

Cultural responsiveness acknowledges and honors the beliefs that culture has in language, in beliefs, communication styles and worldview of diverse clients. The training will explore the importance of cultural responsiveness approaches when working with diverse clients with addiction issues. Review of the current National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards in Health and Health Care intended to advance equity, improve quality and help eliminate disparities in health care and other services will be presented.

The workshop will explore definitions for cultural responsiveness. Focus will be on significant experiences that may affect diverse clients in retention of care and motivation to consider addiction intervention. Discussion will include possible barriers with diverse clients; unintentional biases, microaggressions, lack of cultural information, client’s experiences with racism and oppression, and mistrust of established services. In addition, assimilation and acculturation will be examined as part of the spectrum of client experiences. Discussion will include how cultural experiences influence view of addiction. Strategies and approaches will be explored that can support effective culturally responsive interventions with addiction issues. Strategies will include; harm reduction, strength-based counseling approaches and evidence-based approaches.