Introduction
Human diversity is currently one of the most sought issues enjoying massive importance. Cultural diversity also focuses on understanding the similarities and differences present among the diverse cultures, communities, and societies present among us. This paper focuses on the different roles human service professionals are tasked with in defining and creating opportunities for diverse clients, how they should appreciate and respect the differences among different clients, and the importance of identifying the needs, rights, variations, and growth of clients.
Understanding Client Diversity
We have all heard of the old golden rule: treat others the way you would like to be treated. However, Fitzgerald, (2020) argues that in the modern world, treating clients with the same dignity and courtesy is no longer considered enough. To truly succeed, we need to understand clients in terms of their ethnic, economic, and social backgrounds. Skills like flexibility, effective communication, and awareness are vital, especially for human service professionals. Furthermore, understanding how to create opportunities and positive experiences for different people doesn’t cost a fortune. It becomes essential to make these clients aware that you understand and are responding to their needs.
Creating job opportunities for clients from different backgrounds according to Meyer, Appannah, McMillan, Browning, & Ogrin, (2020), can improve their chances of success. Hiring employees from diverse backgrounds creates the opportunity to share different ideas from the employees, hence providing massive innovative ideas and creativity. This is key to ensuring the long-term success of the business. Apart from business success, other benefits may include improving social and cultural relations among different races.
Role of Human Service Professionals
According to Fitzgerald, (2020), proliferation has made it possible for people with diverse backgrounds to meet and interact in all kinds of disciplines. The world is currently considered a global village. It is currently straightforward for a person to transact, do business, pursue education, or participate in international relations, and this has made interaction among people of different cultures unavoidable. Due to this fact, human service professionals have seen the value of their services significantly improve.
To clearly understand the importance of their roles, let us first consider an example involving cultural diversity. From way back, (Meyer, Appannah, McMillan, Browning, & Ogrin, 2020) argue that Arabs and Westerns have always differed in many aspects. Starting from their family set-ups to the way they conduct their businesses, these two races possess a massive gap between them. Arabian countries are known to boast massive natural resources, while western countries possess technological prowess. However, these differences do not prevent them from interacting and trading with each other. This is just one example among very many of the diversity that exists among us. How we successfully co-exist will heavily rely on the roles of our human service professionals.
Some of the skills needed by human service professionals include teamwork, understanding human needs, and being responsive. One of the basic fundamental human principles we need to understand is that no culture, religion, or idea is superior to the other. HSPs understand these things very well; hence clients find it easy to interact and feel comfortable around them (Chenoweth & McAuliffe,2017).
The fact that people come from diverse backgrounds means that people should learn to respect clients’ differences. Gender, customs, and language are some of the traits that differentiate us. Some of the clients in foreign countries find it hard to communicate with the natives due to the language barrier. As for gender, understanding a person’s gender helps them grow mentally and improve their well-being.
Roberto, Teaster, Lindber, & Blancato, (2020) argue that HSPs must learn to promote inclusivity in their field. To achieve this, they must formulate a professional plan of how to familiarize themselves with these cultures. However, it should be understood that for a person to learn other people’s cultures, they must first learn their own. Learning a new culture calls for seeking out new perspectives and ideas, treating every culture according to how they like to be treated. Right human service professionals, however, do not just learn. They borrow some of the best practices from the different cultures and practice them from their workplaces to their daily lives. With this principle in mind, it becomes easy for them to achieve inclusivity, cultural competence, and diversity in their organizations.
One of the critical responsibilities of human service professionals according to (Roberto, Teaster, Lindber, & Blancato, 2020) is to focus on and improve on a client’s strengths. They always try to build a client from a strengths-based perspective. A client’s strengths can be considered as the intense personal attributes each, and every client has. These attributes are essential in helping a client to solve personal problems as well as overcoming life challenges. However, this does not mean that HSPs ignore the client’s potential weaknesses. They only try and make the client improve and maximize their strengths to help them become more responsible in their lives. However, it mostly drains down to the clients to decide on whether to take action and improve their situation.
Conclusion
It is practically impossible for the entire human race to belong to one community. With this in mind, we should learn to appreciate the diversity among us. It is possible for the human race to coexist without any form of human or client negligence in whatever discipline. What is most is important is for us to try and understand one another. On top of what human service professionals do, we must ensure that we treat each other equally.
References
Roberto, K. A., Teaster, P. B., Lindberg, B. W., & Blancato, R. (2020). A First (and Disturbing) Look at the Relationship Between the Opioid Epidemic and Elder Abuse: Insights of Human Service Professionals. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 0733464820947279.
Avant, D. W., Houston, D., & Nesbitt, L. (2020). Educators as the Gatekeepers: Promoting a Race Informed, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy for Human Service Professionals. In Cultural Competence in Higher Education. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Meyer, C., Appannah, A., McMillan, S., Browning, C., & Ogrin, R. (2020). Diversity training evaluation for community aged care: Tool development. Nurse Education in Practice, 102796.
Fitzgerald, J. K. (2020). Fostering Diversity in ADR: Lessons from the Mansfield Rule 1. American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, 39(1), 36-68.