Culture Brokering: Bridging the Gap Between Foreign-Born Consumers and Rehabilitation Services
Why does diversity matter for disability professionals?
As our communities become increasingly multicultural, disability, and health care providers work with more and more clients from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. With the current immigration trends, it is critical for service providers and educators to work across cultures to support people with disabilities and families access services and resources in various life areas. But how?
Consider potential challenges:
- A female rehabilitation counselor from Puerto Rico and a Chinese physical therapist are working with a young Cambodian man with cerebral palsy. His family does not speak English. The team runs into problems because they don't have a common language or a Cambodian translator. Furthermore, the client is uncomfortable working with a female counselor.
- A young immigrant woman who is blind needs help building independence. Although the family is connected to a service provider, conflict arises because the family and counselor don't agree on what "independence" means.
Using the culture brokering model can help address these scenarios.
Project Director: Paula Sotnik
Project Contact: Rooshey Hasnain