Question
Does social worker bias impact client treatment?
Answer
Social worker biases may also impact what we (social workers) regard as appropriate, acceptable and inappropriate treatment. For some clients/consumers, involvement of traditional healers or homeopathic medication, herbs and vitamins versus allopathic or mainstream meds are preferred.
It is important that we embrace native healers and other forms of treatment modalities that are outside of mainstream medicine. It is also important in social work we have more knowledge of what is outside of mainstream and what is acceptable, because who decided that a particular type of a treatment was acceptable.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar, Culturally Aware Social Work Practice, presented by V. Nikki Jones, DSW, LCSW, LMFT.
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