Culturagram

Last updated August 28, 2023

A culturagram is a family assessment tool used in the practice of social work which was first introduced by Fordham University professor, Dr. Elaine Congress.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Rationale

In social work and other fields, cultural competence is an important skill. As the number and diversity of immigrants has increased dramatically in the United States (Camarota, 2007) there is increased need for clinicians to understand the cultural backgrounds of their clients. A culturagram is a family assessment tool that provides a graphical representation of various aspects of an individual and family's culture.

It can be helpful in assessment and intervention planning for culturally diverse families. This tool grew out of the recognition that families are becoming increasingly culturally diverse and social workers must be able to understand cultural differences between and within families. When attempting to understand culturally diverse families, families needed to be understood within a cultural context. Assessing a family only in terms of a specific cultural identity, however, may lead to overgeneralization and stereotyping (Congress & Kung, 2013). A Puerto Rican family in which all members are American citizens and have lived in the United States for 20 years is very different from an undocumented Mexican family that emigrated last month. Yet both families are considered Hispanic/Latino. Even within the same family group, each member has had a different immigration and acculturation experience, as often family members immigrate at different times and some members may be U.S. citizens, while others are undocumented. Furthermore, family members who regularly work or attend school in the larger community may be more acculturated than those who stay at home.

While the eco-map (Hartman, 1995) and genogram (McGoldrick, Gerson, & Perry, 2008) are useful tools in assessing the family, neither emphasize the important role of culture in understanding the family. The culturagram was developed to help in understanding the cultural background of culture in families (Congress, 1994, 1997; Congress & Kung, 2013). This tool has been applied to work with people of color (Lum, 2004), battered women (Congress & Brownell, 2007), children (Congress, 2001), older people (Brownell & Fenley, 2009), families in crisis (Congress, 2000), Mexican families (Congress, 2004a), Latino and Asian families (Congress & Kung, 2005), immigrant families with health problems (Congress, 2004b; Congress, 2013) and in family development theory (Congress, 2008).

Creation of the culturagram

The culturagram represents an attempt to individualize culturally diverse families (Congress & Kung, 2013). Completing a culturagram on a family can help a clinician develop a better understanding of the family. First developed in 1994 and then revised in 2000 and again in 2009, the culturagram examines the following areas:

contact with cultural and religious institutions, holidays, food, and clothing
health beliefs and access to health care
impact of trauma and crisis events
language spoken at home and in the community
legal status
oppression, discrimination, bias, and racism
reasons for relocation
time in community
values about education and work
values about family—structure, power, myths, and rules. Camarota, S. (2007)

The culturagram has been seen as an essential tool in helping social workers work more effectively with families from many different cultures. Not only does it help the social worker achieve greater understanding of the culture of a family, it can also point the way toward future treatment. The culturagram can be useful in arriving at decisions about treatment planning and intervention. While using the culturagram the practitioner is required to look at the family in the here and now. Sometimes it is helpful, however, to construct the culturagram at different points of time, first at the beginning of intervention and then at a future point. In constructing the culturagram a retrospective approach is also useful. To truly understand immigrant families learning about an immigrant's history is important. For example, the social worker can study what was the immigrants’ experience in their country of origin and in transit. Often a developmental approach that looks at three stages of immigration (pre-migration, transit, and current situation) is helpful in working with immigrants. (Drachman, 2004). For example, refugees may have had particularly traumatic experiences in their country of origin and undocumented immigrants through the transit period that may affect their current psychological well being in the United States.

Current practice looks to evidence that specific interventions are effective. Students and practitioners have used the culturagram in their professional practice with families and reported that it is helpful in engaging families in a nonthreatening way. In the use of the culturagram culture is viewed through a multidimensional lens, rather than as a monolithic entity. Initial evaluation of the culturagram has been positive, and there are further plans to assess further its effectiveness in promoting culturally competent practice.

With the increased number of immigrants in the United States, there will be greater demand for culturally competent practice with immigrant clients and families. Social workers will need to study what methods and models are the most effective. The culturagram emerges as a useful method to better understand and plan interventions with immigrant families

Related Research Articles

Occupational therapists (OTs) are health care professionals specializing in occupational therapy and occupational science. OTs and occupational therapy assistants (OTAs) use scientific bases and a holistic perspective to promote a person's ability to fulfill their daily routines and roles. OTs have training in the physical, psychological, and social aspects of human functioning deriving from an education grounded in anatomical and physiological concepts, and psychological perspectives. They enable individuals across the lifespan by optimizing their abilities to perform activities that are meaningful to them ("occupations"). Human occupations include activities of daily living, work/vocation, play, education, leisure, rest and sleep, and social participation.

Social work (SW) is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work practice draws from areas, such as psychology, sociology, health, political science, community development, law, and economics to engage with systems and policies, conduct assessments, develop interventions, and enhance social functioning and responsibility. The ultimate goals of social work include the improvement of people's lives, alleviation of biopsychosocial concerns, empowerment of individuals and communities, and the achievement of social justice.

School psychology is a field that applies principles from educational psychology, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, community psychology, and behavior analysis to meet the learning and behavioral health needs of children and adolescents. It is an area of applied psychology practiced by a school psychologist. They often collaborate with educators, families, school leaders, community members, and other professionals to create safe and supportive school environments.

Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. According to World Health Organization (WHO), it is a "state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and can contribute to his or her community". It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental health includes subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential, among others. From the perspectives of positive psychology or holism, mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and to create a balance between life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how one defines "mental health". Some early signs related to mental health difficulties are sleep irritation, lack of energy, lack of appetite, and thinking of harming oneself or others.

School social work is a specialized area of social work concerned with the psychosocial functioning of students to promote and maintain their health and well-being while assisting students to access their academic potential. The School Social Work Association of America defines school social workers as "trained mental health professionals who can assist with mental health concerns, behavioral concerns, positive behavioral support, academic, and classroom support,

In social work, a caseworker is not a social worker but is employed by a government agency, nonprofit organization, or another group to take on the cases of individuals and provide them with advocacy, information and solutions. Also, in political arenas, caseworkers are employed as a type of legislative staffer by legislators to provide service to their constituents such as dealing with individual or family concerns. A social worker who works as a caseworker obtains social casework education and training naturally through their compulsory degree works. In social work, casework means to engage a client in learning their situation, to build a suitable plan of action, and helping the client to solve their problems through client commitment and use of their own and community resources, the coordinated service is called case management. British MPs and members of the United States Congress often provide constituent services through caseworkers for better use of their allotted funds.

Personality–job fit theory is a form of organizational psychology, that postulates that an individual's personality traits will reveal insight into their adaptability within an organization. The degree of confluence between a person and the organization is expressed as their Person-Organization (P-O) fit. This is also referred to as a person–environment fit. A common measure of the P-O fit is workplace efficacy - the rate at which workers are able to complete tasks. These tasks are affected by environmental factors within the workplace. For example, a worker who is more efficient working as an individual, rather than in a team, will have a higher P-O fit for a workplace that stresses individual tasks. By matching the right personality with the right job, company workers can achieve a better synergy and avoid pitfalls such as high turnover and low job satisfaction. Employees are more likely to stay committed to organizations if the fit is 'good'.

Psychological resilience is the ability to cope mentally and emotionally with a crisis, or to return to pre-crisis status quickly.

The psychosocial approach looks at individuals in the context of the combined influence that psychological factors and the surrounding social environment have on their physical and mental wellness and their ability to function. This approach is used in a broad range of helping professions in health and social care settings as well as by medical and social science researchers.

Forensic social work is the application of social work to questions and issues relating to the law and legal systems. It is a type of social work that involves the application of social work principles and practices in legal, criminal, and civil contexts. It is a specialized branch of social work that focuses on the intersection of law and mental health. Forensic social work is an important part of the criminal justice system and provides an important link between mental health and the legal system.

Refugee health is the field of study on the health effects experienced by people who have been displaced into another country or even to another part of the world, as a result of unsafe circumstances such as war or persecution. People who have been displaced can be affected by infectious diseases or some chronic diseases that are uncommon in the country in which they eventually settle. Mental health is an important consideration and can greatly impact people who are displaced. The health status of refugee's can be tied to factors such as the person who migrated's geographic origin, conditions of refugee camps or urban settings where they lived, and personal, physical, and psychological conditions of the person, either pre-existing or acquired while traveling from their homeland to a camp or eventually to their new home.

Vincenzo Di Nicola is an Italian-Canadian psychologist, psychiatrist and family therapist, and philosopher of mind.

Nearly half of all refugees are children, and almost one in three children living outside their country of birth is a refugee. These numbers encompass children whose refugee status has been formally confirmed, as well as children in refugee-like situations.

Ronald Roesch is a professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.

Social workers use education as a key tool in client and community interactions. These educational exchanges are not always explicit but are the foundation of how social workers learn from their service participants and how they can assist with information delivery and skill development.

Cultural humility is the “ability to maintain an interpersonal stance that is other-oriented in relation to aspects of cultural identity that are most important to the [person].” Cultural humility is different from other culturally-based training ideals because it focuses on self-humility rather than being an other-directed "they/them" way of achieving a state of knowledge or awareness. It is helpful to see as others see; what they themselves have determined is their personal expression of their heritage and their “personal culture”. Cultural humility was formed in the physical healthcare field and adapted for therapists, social workers, and medical librarians, to learn more about experiences and cultural identities of others and increase the quality of their interactions with clients and community members.

Cultural competence in healthcare refers to the ability for healthcare professionals to demonstrate cultural competence toward patients with diverse values, beliefs, and feelings. This process includes consideration of the individual social, cultural, and psychological needs of patients for effective cross-cultural communication with their health care providers. The goal of cultural competence in health care is to reduce health disparities and to provide optimal care to patients regardless of their race, gender, ethnic background, native languages spoken, and religious or cultural beliefs. Cultural competency training is important in health care fields where human interaction is common, including medicine, nursing, allied health, mental health, social work, pharmacy, oral health, and public health fields.

The Purnell Model for Cultural Competence is a broadly utilized model for teaching and studying intercultural competence, especially within the nursing profession. Employing a method of the model incorporates ideas about cultures, persons, healthcare and health professional into a distinct and extensive evaluation instrument used to establish and evaluate cultural competence in healthcare. Although the Purnell Model was originally created for nursing students, the model can be applied in learning/teaching, management, study and practice settings, within a range of nations and cultures.

Rehabilitation psychology is a specialty area of psychology aimed at maximizing the independence, functional status, health, and social participation of individuals with disabilities and chronic health conditions. Assessment and treatment may include the following areas: psychosocial, cognitive, behavioral, and functional status, self-esteem, coping skills, and quality of life. As the conditions experienced by patients vary widely, rehabilitation psychologists offer individualized treatment approaches. The discipline takes a holistic approach, considering individuals within their broader social context and assessing environmental and demographic factors that may facilitate or impede functioning. This approach, integrating both personal and environmental factors, is consistent with the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).

Newcomer education is the specialized teaching of refugees, migrants, asylees, and immigrants who have resettled in a host country, with the goal of providing the knowledge and skills necessary to integrate into their country of refuge. Education is the primary way by which newcomers can adjust to the linguistic, social, and cultural environments of their new communities. Newcomer education aims to empower newcomers with a sense of self-efficacy and social integration, as well as giving them the skills to pursue employment or higher education. Newcomer education also aims to help address trauma, culture shock, and other negative effects of forced displacement. Education for newcomers can provide long-term prospects for stability of individuals, communities, countries and global society.

References

↑ Lcsw, Jonathan B. Singer, Ph d (December 1, 2008). "Visual Assessment Tools: The Culturagram - Interview with Dr. Elaine Congress".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-18. Retrieved 2016-03-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
↑ "Fordham University". faculty.fordham.edu.

Print/archival References

Brownell, P. (1997). The application of the culturagram in cross-cultural practice with elder abuse victims. Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, 9(2), 19–33.
Brownell, P. and Fenley. R. (2009). Older adult immigrants in the United States: Issues and Services. In F. Chang-Muy & E, Congress, E. Social work with immigrants and refugees: Legal issues, clinical skills, and advocacy. (pp. 277–307) New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Camarota, S. (2007). Immigrants in the United States, 2007: A profile of America’s foreign-born population. Backgrounder 1– 43. Washington, DC: Center for Migration Studies.
Chang-Muy, F, (2009). Legal classification of immigrants. In Chang-Muy, F., & Congress, E. Social work with immigrants and refugees: Legal issues, clinical skills, and advocacy. (pp. 39–62) New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Chang-Muy, F., & Congress, E. (2009). Social work with immigrants and refugees: Legal issues, clinical skills, and advocacy. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Congress, E (2004a). Crisis intervention and diversity: Emphasis on a Mexican immigrant family’s acculturation conflicts. In P. Meyer (Ed.), Paradigms of clinical social work, vol. 3, Emphasis on diversity (pp 125–144). New York: Brunner-Routledge.
Congress, E. (1994). The use of culturagrams to assess and empower culturally diverse families. Families in Society, 75, 531–540.
Congress, E. (1996). Family crisis: Life cycle and bolts from the blue: Assessment and treatment. In A. Roberts (Ed.), Crisis Intervention and brief treatment: Theory, techniques, and applications (pp. 142–159). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
Congress, E. (1997) Using the culturagram to assess and empower culturally diverse families. In E. Congress, Multicultural perspectives in working with families (pp. 3–16). New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Congress, E. (2000). Crisis intervention with culturally diverse families. In A. Roberts, Crisis intervention handbook, 2nd ed. (pp. 431–449). New York: Oxford University Press.
Congress, E. (2001). Ethical issues in work with culturally diverse children and their families. In N.B. Webb, Culturally diverse parent-child and family relationships. (pp. 29–53). New York: Columbia University Press.
Congress, E. (2004b). Cultural and ethical issues in working with culturally diverse patients and their families: The use of the culturagram to promote cultural competent practice in health care settings. Social Work in Health Care, 39(3/4), 249–262.
Congress, E. (2008). Individual and family development theory. In P. Lehman and N. Coady (Eds.), Theoretical perspectives for direct social work practice: A generalist-eclectic approach, 2nd ed. (pp. 83–104). New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Congress, E. (2012). Social work with refugees. In D. Elliott and U. Segal, editors). Refugees worldwide. Volume 4 Law, Policy, and Programs (pp. 197–218). Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
Congress, E. (2013). Immigrants and health care. In Social Work Section of the American Public Health Association, Handbook for Public Health Social Work (pp. 103–121). New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Congress, E., & Brownell, P. (2007). Application of the culturagram with culturally and ethnically diverse battered women. In A. Roberts (Ed.), Battered women and their families. New York: Springer.
Congress, E., & Kung, W. (2013). Using the culturagram to assess and empower culturally diverse families. In E. Congress and M. Gonzalez, Multicultural perspectives in working with families (pp. 2–21). New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Congress, E., & Lyons, B. (1992). Ethnic differences in health beliefs: Implications for social workers in health care settings. Social Work in Health Care, 17(3), 81–96.
Devore, W., & Schlesinger, E. (1999). Ethnic-sensitive social work practice. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Drachman, D.and Pine, B (2004). Effective child welfare practice with immigrant and refugee children and their families. Washington: Child Welfare League of America.
Hartman, A. (1995). Diagrammatic assessment of family relationships. Families in Society, 76, 111-122.
Lum, D. (2004). Social work practice and people of color: A process-stage approach, 5th ed. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole.
McGoldrick, M, Gerson, R, &Perry S. (2008) Genograms: Assessment and intervention. 3rd ed. New York: Norton.
U.S. Bureau of Census. (2007). Current population survey, 113th ed. Austin, TX: Reference Press.

External links

Article in “The New Social Worker Online,” Culturally Competent Social Work Practice With Latino Clients. Culturally Competent Social Work Practice With Latino Clients.
Article on the Foreign Born Population in the United States: 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20150209224630/http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acs-19.pdf
NASW Standards for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice. .
National Center for Cultural Competence. National Center for Cultural Competence.
Podcast on the culturagram, interview of Elaine Congress by Jonathan Singer, Visual Assessment Tools: The Culturagram - Interview with Dr. Elaine Congress

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Lcsw, Jonathan B. Singer, Ph d (December 1, 2008). "Visual Assessment Tools: The Culturagram - Interview with Dr. Elaine Congress".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[2] "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-18. Retrieved 2016-03-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[3] "Fordham University". faculty.fordham.edu.

[1]

[2]

[3]