The purpose of this review is to interview an individual of a different intersectionality from myself and comparatively review literature that correlates to the individual’s demographic position in the community, their experiences and viewpoints in relation to social work practice. The referenced literature is comprised of several scholarly articles regarding the interviewee’s cultural background and implications for social work practice among this distinct population.
The interview subject is a middle adulthood, Ultra-Orthodox, Hasidic, Jewish, married female.
The tentative conclusions drawn regarding how social work practice can best assist persons from within this cultural group were found to be based on religious authoritative preeminence. Most Orthodox Jews will first turn to a rabbi for advice for either social or emotional issues.
Clinicians that work with this particular group need to be well versed in their strict religious customs and schedule of religious observances. Rabbinical guidance is most assuredly a definitive factor in the successful counseling of Hasidic clients.
Although studies have been conducted to measure the prevalence patterns of disorder in the Jewish community, clinical diagnosis and treatment issues most common to this population are focused on distinguishing religious behavior from pathological behavior and if religious intervention will be beneficial to a client’s treatment (Farkas, 2013).
PART I: INTERVIEW
Hasidic Judaism
The notion of making the invisible visible is this concept that recognizes the forces of power because they highlight how experiences and certain identities get constructed and normalized into the dynamics of society. For instance, being a poor person of color, or a queer person allows those people to be subjected under different layers of power, such as gender stereotypes, economic expectations, which are ultimately social control mechanisms that place humans on this spectrum of who deserves success and who does not. Intersectionality, in regards to Honduran Americans references the different layers of forces which are subjecting them to be discriminated inside a white dominated nation. For instance, white males are at the top of the spectrum while poor black queer women are at the bottom of latter thereby indicating how oppression is reactionary toward subjective identities.
Within this essay the areas in which discrimination and oppression occur will be highlighted and then evaluated to show how ‘good’ anti oppressive/ discriminative practice within social work can ‘aid’ and empower service users who are in groups that experience oppression and discrimination to overcome their problems. Gil (1994) states that “the conditions that cause people to seek help from social services are usually direct or indirect consequences of social, economic, and political institutions, and... the profession of social work is ethically committed to promote social justice. Insights into oppression and social
I am applying intersectionality and the sociological imagination to my intersecting identities: class, gender, and ethnicity. By employing intersectionality and the sociological imagination, I am analyzing how my positionality affected my personal experiences while connecting those events with society. I also included five peer-reviewed articles as supporting evidence.
Intersectionality is a framework that must be applied to all social justice work, a frame that recognizes the multiple aspects of identity that enrich our lives and experiences. This framework synthesizes and complicates oppressions and marginalization’s. In the article, “Why Intersectionality Can’t Wait” Kimberle Crenshaw talks about how the purpose of intersectionality has been lost. Intersectional somehow creates an environment of bullying and privilege checking. This society cannot afford to have movements that are not intersectional because all races need to be embraced and have equality.
Evidence has linked a strong relationship between spirituality and medicine. There is a positive correlation between a patient’s spirituality or religious commitment and health outcomes. A spiritual assessment as a part of a health assessment is a practical step to incorporating patient’s spiritual needs into practice. The FICA Tool and HOPE Questions provide serve to assist clinicians in the spiritual assessment process. By examining the research done using these tools, it has been determined that the FICA Tool is easy to use and provides basic data on a patient’s spirituality. The FICA tool is both reliable and valid. The HOPE Questions are
The benefits of religious counselling is it’s proven efficacy Nathaniel (2005) that illustrates clients as experiencing a greater feeling of closeness within the
Intersectionality has been partly criticized for being nebulous in nature and difficult to define and apply in practice. For the purposes of this paper, I do not wish to offer a defininitve definintion of the term, but instead offer an understanding of several key concepts which have particular salience for social work practice. Intersectionality can function both as a theory for understanding structural inequality but also as a paradigm through which to investigate these systems. Intersectionality scholarship has functioned primarily to highlight the complexity of interlocking systems of oppression. In doing so intersectional scholarship seeks to center the experience of marginalized groups, revealing how oppression manifests both inside and outside of social justice movements.
The idea of intersectionality is that all of our identities overlap and are also constantly affecting our privileges and oppressions. People do not always think about their interactions despite them playing a pivotal role in our human experience. This is what causes some writers to feel the need to put them into words so that maybe more people will look at themselves and do some thinking about their own intersections. Some of the authors that I believe have done this well are Patricia Collins in her work titled Black Feminist Thought. Another work that discussed intersectionality well is titled “A Black Feminist Statement” which is powerful in the way it discusses how race interacts with womanhood. The final piece I feel as though needs discussed is Women, Race, and Class which is a piece written by Angela Davis that discusses the intersections that can be seen in
Before beginning the Master of Social Work program at Laurier I figured I had a strong understanding of what social work was. However, I quickly learned that I had only scratched the surface. I knew oppression existed, but I never understood the depth of it. I now know that I was afraid of it. It was easy for me to stay silent, because it was such a comfortable position to be in. Doing nothing meant I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. This was influenced by the privilege I had.
For health care providers to deliver the best holistic care that patients deserve, a thorough spiritual assessment must be included during their care. With more research showing a relationship between supporting a patient’s spirituality with their health and ability to cope with illness, it is now a requirement of organizations to include a spiritual assessment to maintain accreditation with The Joint Commission. The minimum required of a spiritual assessment by The Joint Commission is to determine the patient’s religion and
However, intersectionality specifically aims to address disadvantage caused by oppressive institutions such as racism, sexism, ableism and homophobia (Crenshaw, 1989). This means that we ought to combat systemic oppressions not only at an individual level but also structural level. In the context of domestic and family violence against women, this intersectional approach might require women’s domestic violence services to work collaboratively with social justice movements and be in concert with Indigenous, LGBTIQ and Disability rights and advocacy groups. There are obvious constraints to this, however, as social work intervention is bound by State regulations and legal frameworks and many community organisations rely on Government funding for resources (Thompson, 2002, p719).
Part of this is culturally appropriate introductions, I will explain where I am from and why I am there, there needs to be a genuine sharing of both my professional and personal identity (Bennett et al., 2013). Bennett, Zubzycki and Bacon (2011) “you don’t build relationships with people just because it’s the nice thing to do, it’s actually the only way to work” (p. 27). Previously, service providers have been ethnocentric in their practice and have lacked clear cultural knowledge this has resulted in social workers being met with “wariness, distrust and cynicism” when entering Indigenous communities (Bennett et al., 2013, p. 2). I will explain my understanding of the historical and contemporary mistreatment and how I do not want that to continue. I will explain that I want to work in a culturally acceptable manner and I am happy for them to let me know if that is not
People’s community plays an intricate role in their treatment of a mental health disorder and the path to recovery of a mental health disorder. While there are numerous communities that a person can assign themselves to, religion is a community that can play a major role in individual’s lives. Official religious traditions provide individuals with a community of people present in their life as well as a higher being that can support them after their death. There are both strengths and weaknesses of official religious traditions in how people view their mental health disorders and how people go to seek treatment. Since religious literacy in America is decreasing, there is an increased need for literature explaining the connection between religion and individual’s life experiences.
There are many interpretations of intersectionality, but without a doubt, the critical theory of intersectionality is based on the understanding that oppressive institutions within society take different forms for specific cultural and social positions of individuals and groups. Among the concerns in the article, Joan Simalchik and Hunter College Women’s and Gender Studies Collective discuss the ways in which intersectionality provides a better understanding of how relations of power and privilege and the intersection of gender and race influence women’s everyday lives.
In the anti oppressive social work practice, the social worker has to emphasize cultural competency and provide culturally responsive facilities to the clients and recognize diversity and differences as a strength to solve the cause of ethnic, race and other types of oppressions (Danso, 2009).