Service providers’ cultural self-awareness and responsible use of racial power when working with ethnic minority victims/survivors of child sexual abuse: Results from a program evaluation study in Australia

With Australia’s expanding diversity, there is a rising onus for the whole mental health and sexual assault workforce to be appropriately trained in ‘racial self-awareness’ to help enhance the quality of services; a combination of cultural self-awareness and awareness of white privilege. Client’s fear of breached confidentiality and ensuing preference for a non-ethnically matched worker, as well as risk of increased harm from judgmental ethnic minority workers or interpreters, further add to this need. To help address it, a professional development program was delivered and evaluated over six months using a mixed methods design (T1 n = 112, T2 n = 44). Since most participants were social workers and counsellors, they were already trained in social justice issues. Thus, instead of gains in knowledge about white privilege, they more appreciated the opportunity to have frank discussions about racism, skin colour, and intersectionality (which distinguishes white from brown feminism). Although the cross-wave sample size was small, the results contribute new and innovative empirical data. Overall, the results show that the relevant workforce is as diverse as the client group, who may be seeking either ‘culturally safe’ or ‘colour blind’ services. Psychiatrists can assist clinically unwell victims/survivors, general practitioners (GPs) can model good engagement with other professionals and provide referrals, and social workers, counsellors, and psychologists can talk through and share trauma with the aim of reducing the symptoms of emotional distress. When practitioners receive training in cultural competency, the ethnic minority client victim/survivor is more likely to receive a service aware of how racial power could be abused (even unintentionally) in the clinical setting and therefore have a chance to take professional responsibility for it.