May 6 - 8, 2002
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Providing Culturally Competent Disability Services
to Persons Born in other Countries May 6 - 8, 2002 |
Our children are special: South Asian children with special needs in a British city
Miles, C.
Birmingham, England B29 5PX
Abstract
This paper is based on the author's 24 years of work with South Asian families who have children with disabilities, and of giving in-service training to frontline workers and managers, in Pakistan and in a British Midlands city. Lack of awareness of cultu ral differences often results in service providers failing to meet the needs of or answer families' concerns. Often families are not enabled to understand or participate in the assessment of their children's needs and in decision-making about their childr en's future use of education and welfare services. Professionals' lack of awareness about cultural patterns of child raising can result in inappropriate advice being given, thereby losing a family's trust, affecting support networks within the family, and sometimes damaging natural patterns of interaction with their child. Suggestions are made for ways of enhancing professional knowledge and skill so as to make services more effective.