TITLE: The minority severely emotionally disturbed child: Considerations for special education and mental health services
AUTHOR: CASSP Technical Assistance Center
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1989
This report, put together as a result of a series of meetings which
brought together professionals from mental health, special
education, juvenile justice, and health and maternal and infant
care, discusses issues as they relate to the provision of services
from children and youth labelled severely emotionally disturbed.
It discusses some of the barriers that often make delivery of
services difficult to those groups described as minorities in this
country. It emphasizes the need for community and interagency
cooperation in providing services to this group of people and
discusses the awareness that must be developed to meet the needs of
minority groups and some of the cultural variations that exist
among people. The report discusses issues as they relate to the
following five categories: program development, funding, research,
education and training and policy development and advocacy.
TITLE: Towards a culturally competent system of care
AUTHOR: Cross, T. L., Bazron, B. J., Dennis, K. W., & Issacs, M. R.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: March, 1989
This monograph focuses on effective services for minority children
who are severely emotionally disturbed. It was developed to assist
states and communities in addressing the appropriateness of care
for children and adolescents labelled severely emotionally
disturbed, specifically dealing with the concerns and needs of
culturally and racially diverse groups. It is the first of two
volumes geared toward service providers, policymakers and
administrators of public and private child-serving agencies and
provides a philosophical framework and practical ideas for
improving service delivery. It specifically targets African-
American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, and Native-American
groups. Though not a "how to" manual, it examines the strengths of
these cultures and how the system of care can more effectively deal
with cultural differences and treatment issues. The monograph also
lays out a cultural continuum describing where agencies fall in
relation to their sensitivity and awareness of other cultures.
Though this brings up some interesting issues, the idea of a
continuum and what needs to be done to move toward cultural
competence can offer the illusion that an agency has arrived at a
level of service simply by using the correct language.
TITLE: Towards a culturally competent system of care, Volume II
AUTHOR: Isaacs, M. R., & Benjamin, M. P.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: December, 1991
This second volume on culturally competent system of care (authors
strongly recommend reading Volume I first) describes values and
principle of a culturally competent system of care. Volume II
looks at 11 programs and highlights the culturally competent
aspects of each. Though the programs represented are not
necessarily model programs, but are good examples of programs that
are serving, as they describe, people of color. The volume
includes background information regarding the importance of
cultural competence in services and explores ways to move toward
such a system. It presents an analysis of issues brought up by the
11 programs and looks at future directions. The information in
these volumes offers insight in how all services systems can begin
to more systematically address these very important issues.
TITLE: Government policies and the disabled in American Indian communities
AUTHOR: Joe, J. R., & Locust, C.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: July 1987 (update August 1989)
This monograph offers a very good overview of public and government
policies as they have related historically to American Indians. It
discusses policies for people with disabilities and the parallels
between the two pointing out the double discrimination for American
Indians with disabilities. The monograph also discusses problems
that currently face American Indians with disabilities in terms of
lack of culturally appropriate services and opportunities
especially for those given the label of severely disabled.
TITLE: Developing cross-cultural competence: A guide for working with young children and their families
AUTHOR: Lynch, E. W., & Hanson, M. J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1992
This book first discusses issues of ethnic, cultural, and language
diversity providing insight into concepts of cultural identity and
cultural considerations for interventionists which include self-
awareness, awareness and understanding as well as developing
communication. All of these areas are in working toward what they
call a culturally competent system. The book then looks as
families from a variety of cultural backgrounds including African,
Asian, Native, European, Latino, Native Hawaiian, Middle Eastern,
and Philipino.
TITLE: Overcoming obstacles and improving outcomes: Early intervention services for Indian children with special needs
AUTHOR: Malach, R. S., Segel, N., & Thomas, T.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION:
This 20-page paper identifies and discusses some important issues
to be considered when providing early intervention services to
American Indian infants and their families. It discusses the
conflicts between Western culture and Indian traditions values,
and beliefs as they relate to service provision. It discusses the
lack of trust that has developed overtime because of Western health
care services imposed on Indian families with little or no
consideration to their culture, values and beliefs. Essentially,
the paper describes some of the important issues that must be
considered when providing services to American Indian families and
some examples for non-Indian professionals working with Indian
families of children with disabilities. A number of other
publications and video tapes, including one for Indian parents that
must deal with non-Indian service providers, as well as an
annotated bibliography on issues related to early intervention with
American Indian families are also are available.
TITLE: Honoring the differences: Six essential features of serving culturally/linguistically diverse children with special needs
AUTHOR: Metz, I. B.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1989
This 9-page booklet addresses issues related to preschool children
with special needs whose culture or language differ from that of
the mainstream culture. It first offers a discussion on
cultural/linguistic diversity defining culture and the affects it
has on individuals specifically related to broad categories such as
communication, specific language system, teaching and learning
strategies and family history and structure. The booklet goes on to
briefly discuss five other areas: access, family support, rapport,
reciprocity, and culture mediation. A brief but concise booklet
offering a number of examples.
TITLE: Hispanic families: Critical issues for policy and programs in human services
AUTHOR: Montiel, M. (Ed).
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1978
This is a collection of papers which focuses on aspects of the
roles and impacts of the family in Hispanic communities. It
focuses mainly on low-income families and children and addresses
stressors involving the push toward acculturation prevalent in
society today. The book looks at policy implications and critical
issues in theory and practice that must be addressed in shaping
services. The book also examines the historical processes,
cultural values, and socio-economic conditions that contribute to
the current status of Hispanic families.
TITLE: Disability and people from minority backgrounds
AUTHOR: Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: Spring, 1991
This issue of OSERS News in Print concentrates solely on issues
related to people of minority backgrounds including: vocational
rehabilitation of American Indians, employment issues, issues
related to migrant farm workers, students with limited English
proficiency who are also labelled as having a disability and a list
of related resources.
TITLE: Future frontiers in employment of minority persons with disabilities
AUTHOR: Walker, S., Belgrave, F. Z., Nicholls. R. W., & Turner. K. A. (Eds.)
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1991
This book presents proceedings from a national conference on the
future of employment for minority persons with disabilities that
was held in 1990. It looks at four areas: policy implications,
new frontiers in multicultural approaches, the future in assistive
technology and finally advancing frontiers through collaboration.
Each section offers a number of articles looking at the issues
related to vocation of a number of minority groups and the
challenges we face as a nation.