IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v119y2020ics0190740920320648.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Sawrikar, Pooja

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Sawrikar, Pooja, 2020. "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 Aus," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:119:y:2020:i:c:s0190740920320648
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105641
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740920320648
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105641?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sawrikar, Pooja & Katz, Ilan, 2017. "How aware of child sexual abuse (CSA) are ethnic minority communities? A literature review and suggestions for raising awareness in Australia," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 246-260.
    2. Sawrikar, Pooja & Katz, Ilan, 2017. "The treatment needs of victims/survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) from ethnic minority communities: A literature review and suggestions for practice," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 166-179.
    3. Sawrikar, Pooja, 2013. "A qualitative study on the pros and cons of ethnically matching culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) client families and child protection caseworkers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 321-331.
    4. Sawrikar, Pooja & Katz, Ilan, 2018. "Preventing child sexual abuse (CSA) in ethnic minority communities: A literature review and suggestions for practice in Australia," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 174-186.
    5. Sawrikar, Pooja & Katz, Ilan, 2017. "Barriers to disclosing child sexual abuse (CSA) in ethnic minority communities: A review of the literature and implications for practice in Australia," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 302-315.
    6. Chenot, David & Benton, Amy D. & Iglesias, Michelle & Boutakidis, Ioakim, 2019. "Ethnic matching: A two-state comparison of child welfare workers' attitudes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 24-31.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chiva-Bartoll, Oscar & Maravé-Vivas, María & Salvador-García, Celina & Valverde-Esteve, Teresa, 2021. "Impact of a physical education service-learning programme on ASD children: A mixed-methods approach," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sawrikar, Pooja, 2020. "Service providers’ understanding of cross-cultural differences in belief of myths about child sexual abuse: Results from a program evaluation study in Australia," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    2. Sawrikar, Pooja & Katz, Ilan, 2017. "How aware of child sexual abuse (CSA) are ethnic minority communities? A literature review and suggestions for raising awareness in Australia," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 246-260.
    3. Suyanto, Bagong & Hidayat, Medhy Aginta & Sugihartati, Rahma & Ariadi, Septi & Wadipalapa, Rendy Pahrun, 2019. "Incestuous abuse of Indonesian girls: An exploratory study of media coverage," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 364-371.
    4. Radney, Angelise & Lee, Joyce Y. & Xu, Amy & Steinke, Hannah R. & Mengo, Cecilia & Johnson-Motoyama, Michelle, 2024. "Racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare utilization among children in U.S. foster care: Recommendations to challenge the status quo based on a scoping review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    5. Pilar Rueda & Marta Ferragut & M. Victoria Cerezo & Margarita Ortiz-Tallo, 2021. "Child Sexual Abuse in Mexican Women: Type of Experience, Age, Perpetrator, and Disclosure," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-11, June.
    6. Chenot, David & Benton, Amy D. & Iglesias, Michelle & Boutakidis, Ioakim, 2019. "Ethnic matching: A two-state comparison of child welfare workers' attitudes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 24-31.
    7. Sawrikar, Pooja & Katz, Ilan, 2017. "Barriers to disclosing child sexual abuse (CSA) in ethnic minority communities: A review of the literature and implications for practice in Australia," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 302-315.
    8. Sawrikar, Pooja & Katz, Ilan, 2018. "Preventing child sexual abuse (CSA) in ethnic minority communities: A literature review and suggestions for practice in Australia," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 174-186.
    9. Shirley Ben Shlomo & Ayelet Oreg, 2022. "Ultra-Orthodox Lesbian Women in Israel: Alternative Family Structures as a Bridge between Religious and Sexual Identities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-21, June.
    10. Sawrikar, Pooja & Katz, Ilan, 2017. "The treatment needs of victims/survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) from ethnic minority communities: A literature review and suggestions for practice," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 166-179.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:119:y:2020:i:c:s0190740920320648. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.