(December 2006/ January 2007)

A social worker of African descent talked about his program, which is geared toward preventing entry into the criminal justice system. The program serves young men, the majority of whom are Black. He characterized his clients as alienated from their families while burdened by “excess levels of material impoverishment”. Coupled with this, he said, is a range of fears and anxieties, including fear of the police and fear of one’s parents.

This social worker shared that these young men are contending with rage and frustration, but are still able to experience humor and joy. He used the term “hedonistic” to describe the lifestyle that many of these young men pursue.

He said that his clients have difficulty verbalizing their emotional states, but they run the risk of facing repercussions if they do open up, given that they are likely to be harboring “loaded issues”. As an example of what he meant, he shared that he witnessed a social worker calling the police after successfully engendering enough trust for one of the young men to actually share something meaningful.

This social worker shared his experiences as part of a focus group of social workers working with communities of African descent that was convened by NASW-NYC on October 17, 2006. The purpose of the group was to learn about what social workers are experiencing and their perceptions of professional practice. The group included 10 social workers who are African American as well as recent immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa. Line workers, supervisors, and administrators were represented among the men and women who participated, and represented four of the five the boroughs in New York City.

The discussion and stories that emerged in the group illustrated complex processes and themes at work in the relationships between clients, workers, and agencies. It was evident that the services provided by these social workers were both special and essential, and their stories and comments also hold lessons for the entire profession.

It was agreed that the identity of the focus group participants would be kept anonymous in order to assure that they would feel free to express their experiences and opinions.

Sharing a Common Background

The social worker in criminal justice prevention said that a major goal of his program is to inspire hope to help people who live in a state of “confinement and confusion”, unable to see their way clear of the limiting circumstances of their lives.

In addition to providing individual counseling, the unique part of the program, he said, is the participation in large groups of 15 to 20 young men. The social worker said that the group experience offers the opportunity for opening up discussions that would not be able to happen through individual sessions, alone.

He said that a number of clinicians, all of whom are themselves Black, run the group, and in significant ways share a common background with the young men. He said that what is important is that the clinicians are encouraged to feel and be who they are, which allows all of the participants to express their own humanity. This creates a communal atmosphere and, he said, helps the program participants talk from a deep place within themselves.

The program director summed up the benefits of the program’s approach by saying that there are a number of outcomes that can be observed that are not likely to be achieved by a one-to-one approach alone. This includes going to school and parents saying that things are going better at home.

Another focus group participant who was familiar with this program, said that the design of the program has been criticized because of how the clinicians participate in the group, and questions have been raised about whether they are crossing professional boundaries. It was pointed out that the form of engagement being used sends the message to the participants of “let’s be real”. He said that the group is less structured than in a more traditional approach and might create a concern about safety for social workers who are not comfortable with such an open approach. He added that the approach to the group that was discussed reflects a non-traditional form of psychodynamic therapy.

This second social worker, who also works with adolescents, shared that a client’s rage will often be expressed when he feels that he is not being heard. He said that he has experienced social workers becoming upset and afraid when their clients express their anger, but the actual message is that the worker is not listening.

Another social worker who runs a school based mental health program shared one experience of being called to look into a situation where a child, whose family recently came to the United States from Nigeria, was acting out and getting into fights with his classmates. The teacher, who the social worker said had been trained to be culturally sensitive, nevertheless, wanted the child to be removed from the class and believed that he had a serious behavioral problem and needed mental health services.

The social worker, who himself was from Africa, assessed the family situation as well as the child’s relationships with classmates. The social worker identified that the boy lived with his grandmother, who did not speak English nor read or write. His separation from his parents and the experiences related to coming to a new country were determined to be key factors underlying his behavior in school.

Another finding that had not originally been identified was that the boy’s classmates were making fun of the boy’s African name, which had a special meaning. The social worker’s intervention logically addressed the significance of this, with both the teacher and the class, and sought to help the child make a more complete adjustment to living in a new environment.

Ingredients of Cultural Competence

This same social worker also talked about the challenge he faced in encountering an angry and confrontational mother of a child in the school who he felt was making an inappropriate demand on him. In addition to the way that he was approached by the mother, he said that he was extremely busy and involved in writing a grant. When he told the mother, who was from the Caribbean, that he was not able to help her, she derisively commented that someone from Africa would not care about her situation because Africans had sold her people into slavery.

The social worker shared that through self reflection, he was able to put his own annoyance at this woman aside, and to rethink how he responded despite the woman’s confrontational manner. When he subsequently met with her, he came to appreciate the woman’s situation, including the fact that one of her children had stabbed her at an earlier point, and the woman was feeling desperate for help.

This social worker said that he felt that it was essential to “look at ourselves” and continue to have passion. He said that, for himself, it is sometimes a matter of setting aside his own ego, and putting the clients’ needs first, something that is not always easy. He said that otherwise we cannot do our jobs.

Another focus group participant said that there is a dilemma for clients of African descent in seeing social workers for service. She said that social workers often expect their clients to express their feelings, yet, given the experience of racism in people’s lives, many clients are likely to suppress their feelings. As a result they can be identified as being resistant and angry. She said that she even finds social workers of African descent doing this to their clients.

This social worker talked about working with Haitian clients, who she said have lived under a dictatorship for most of their lives. She said that families were the ones who took care of the needs of their members. Living in meager circumstances, families survived by tending to each other. She said that, given their history and experience, they generally mistrust social service providers and often feel that government services are suspect.

She said that she was concerned that being “culturally sensitive” was problematic, that she was not “a fan of this”. Her concern focused on coming to see people of African descent in some “monolithic” way, that knowing something about a people’s background could be as dehumanizing as not understanding their background at all. She said that better than taking classes in culture, social workers need to sit with their clients and get to know them as human beings, and not assume that they know anything at all.

A focus group participant who is employed in a government agency with responsibility for oversight of programs run by community agencies said that 85% of the clients in each program she visits are people of color, yet, typically, there is only a small number of social workers of color. She said that it is common for these social workers to be given the “angry” clients. Another focus group participant who has worked in several hospital settings said that she has experienced this, as well. The government-based social worker said that she asks herself why this is happening, and shared that she believed that many social workers are simply not culturally competent to deal with clients who are difficult.

Benefit to the Community

A social work administrator in a child welfare program raised concerns that there are not a sufficient number of clinical social workers of African descent. She said that many of her staff who are Black do not have social work degrees but are very dedicated to their work, are more likely than other social workers to make themselves available after hours for parents to come in, and are more willing and comfortable to make home visits.

She said that overall, she sees staff of African descent, whether with the degree or not, as more likely to “take chances” in order to make a difference. She said that this dedication and commitment is a benefit to the community. She expressed frustration that many of the staff who do not have degrees in social work see the cost of obtaining an education as a barrier. She said that they need help in understanding that taking out loans is an investment in one’s future.

Challenges and Accountability

In addressing challenges to providing services to clients of African descent, some of the social workers said that the problems of racism, poverty, and lack of resources are so widespread that it is hard to know how to help people.

One social worker said that he was “shocked” by how difficult it often is to get the proper level of service for clients, even when in desperate need. He also said that to get agency administrators to look at problems, such as a building’s deplorable conditions, it took the intervention of a White administrator to have any attention paid to the problem.