messages.role: user
messages.content: Respond to this post: Culture influences how a person believes, thinks, and feels. Cultural backgrounds contribute heavily to the overall identity of an individual. When looking at treatment options and how to best build rapport with an individual who struggles with SUD, or not, it is important to recognize every aspect of that person’s life. Due to diverse beliefs systems and overall life experience treatment cannot be a one size fits all. It is vitally important to understand a person’s unique distinctness. This should absolutely be addressed when moving forward with the optimum, therapeutic plan.
  
  Barriers that can hinder best possible treatment options are seen in stigma, misunderstanding, and even language. Sometimes these barriers can even discourage a person from seeking out help. If a person does finally decide to reach out, they may feel disheartened if they are not understood. Sensitivity towards people of other cultures helps make the person seeking help feel more at ease. Being open to understanding other’s history, upbringing and ethnic backgrounds will help build a healthy foundation and bring down any walls that may be present.
  
  Clients do not need to feel judged or stereotyped. Clients need to feel safe and able to express past issues, problems they currently face and how they are coping and functioning in their day to day lives. If providers are unable to recognize differences in an individual and honor and respect those differences the course of action necessary to help will be to no avail. It is fundamental for treatment to effectively address each individual client’s needs and certainly be inclusive of cultural backgrounds.
  
  Personally, I have not ever felt judged or misunderstood due to my own cultural background. However, I have recognized when clients were reluctant to share experiences initially due to their own beliefs or upbringing. I did have a client, once, from a Hispanic background that had concerns around her mental health issues due to how her parents viewed mental health from a cultural perspective. She was reluctant to share at first and afraid to tell her parents that she needed some help. She would bring her sister to the office for support, and I was able to gain more understanding from her sister. We were able to create a plan where the teen would write down her thoughts and feelings about the depression and share with her parents in that manner. It helped the girl to open up and address the stigma around depression in her family. She was able to receive the help she needed, and her family was able to broaden their thoughts and feelings regarding mental illness.
  
  