Voices of ethnically diverse social workers on inclusivity of social services and youth mental wellbeing

• Published in: Children and youth services review 2024-08, Vol.163, p.107799, Article 107799
• Main Authors: Kwok, Kim, Kwan, Chi Kin, Lo, Kai Chung
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cultural humility; Ethnic inequalities; Ethnically diverse social workers; Power imbalance; Service inclusivity; Youth mental wellbeing
• ISSN: 0190-7409
• DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.107799

•A lack of understanding and accommodation hinders ethnically diverse youth’s access to social service and their mental wellbeing.•Cultural humility framework provides exceptional insights for situations where power imbalances exist between ethnic majority and minority groups.•Voices from the ethnically diverse social workers should be considered in promoting service inclusivity.•The role of negative emotions in promoting cultural inclusivity should be acknowledged and addressed. This article reports a qualitative study examining the cultural inclusivity of mainstream social services on the mental wellbeing of ethnically diverse youth in Hong Kong through the voices and perspectives of ethnically diverse social workers. It departs from the observation of ethnic disparities in service access in Hong Kong, adopts the cultural humility framework and draws on focus group interviews with nineteen ethnically diverse social workers. The findings reveal a lack of understanding of the challenges and sources of stress for ethnically diverse youth, a lack of awareness and recognition of power disparities, and insufficient organizational accommodation to serve ethnically diverse youth and to integrate ethnically diverse social workers. This study provides valuable insights for advancing cultural inclusivity in multicultural social work research and initiative. It confirms structural barriers like power dynamics and ethnocentrism in non-Western context while highlighting the overlooked role of emotions in fostering institutional change towards greater inclusivity. These multifaceted findings can inform future conceptualization and implementation of cultural inclusivity. Additionally, in promoting cultural humility, diverse voices from helping professionals, including ethnically diverse social workers, should be considered.