Identifying Potential
Areas of Conflict
In completing
a plan of care for clients, including Amal, it is important to unearth your “unconscious
bias” or potential areas of conflict that may surface when working and
interacting with individuals of different cultural beliefs, backgrounds, and
social/personal values. It is essential to become aware of our biases and
understand the impact of unconscious bias before working with diverse/vulnerable
clients/patients.
The
first step in addressing unconscious bias is to examine your personal beliefs,
values, attitudes, and perceptions. To begin, review the information provided
at the weblinks below:
https://diversity.llnl.gov/about/bias
The impact of unconscious bias in
healthcare: How to recognize and mitigate it
Use
the information found on the websites linked above to explore and explain your
answers to the following questions in a Word Document. All answers should be completely in your own
words. Your response should be at least
250 words in length.
1. Define the term “bias” and
describe the two types of bias.
2. Explain how understanding
bias will help you make appropriate referrals and find suitable resources for
your client (in this case, Amal).
3. Looking back at the
Identifying Client Characteristics Chart you completed in Week 2, identify at
least two (2) significant differences that exist between you and Amal. These differences might include religious
beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identification, socioeconomic status (SES),
etc. Detail how these differences might
relate to bias and/or impact the care that Amal receives.
4. Summarize some strategies
that you (as an individual working within the human and social services field)
can utilize to minimize the impact of bias.