Accidents, sudden illness, violence, and unemployment can also bring trauma to an immigrant family.

Other crisis events include developmental crises, especially in adolescents because they want to be just like their peers.

Many refugees have endured pre-migration traumatic experiences, such as war, torture, murder of relatives or rape. Also, physical and mental health are more interwoven in the U.S., so it is uncomfortable for some immigrants to share personal issues with a doctor who they do not know well. They only go to the doctor when they are very sick. For example, some do not get well-baby visits or preventive checkups in their home countries. Many immigrants have very different beliefs about health diagnoses and treatment. At other times, the children may refuse to speak their native language, leading to communication problems with their parents. They may get exposed to situations that children do not typically face. Most children learn to speak English very quickly when they come to the U.S., but their parents often use them as interpreters, which keeps children out of school.

Language Spoken at Home and in the Community The differences in acculturation can cause various family members to develop different points of view. For example, one person may have come here to work or attend school before the rest of the family followed. Time in Communityĭifferent family members may have lived in the U.S. Often, such fears can prevent people from getting the medical or special services they need. This can create a lot of tension due to the fear of deportation. It is not uncommon for people in the same family to have different legal statuses, from illegal immigrants and those who overstayed their visas, to ones with Green Cards or even citizenship. and their home countries frequently, while others may never go home again-there is often a certain sadness associated with this fact. Some immigrants go back and forth between the U.S. Transnationalism is a recurring theme here. because of economic reasons, while others came to reunite with family members, while yet others moved here to escape political or religious persecution. Surrounding them are the 10 culturagram categories 3: 1. The center of the culturagram consists of the names of the individual family members. These challenges include oppression, bias, discrimination and racism. The latest version focuses on various challenges faced by today's immigrant population. Congress has been refining the culturagram since she developed it in the early ’90s. The method differs from other assessment tools (e.g., the ecomap and the genogram) because of its unique focus on culture, which is key to working with clients from immigrant backgrounds. Congress developed the culturagram based on her work with numerous clients over the years. The framework offers the missing piece in many counseling approaches to support acculturation, which is knowing the unique perspective of families to empower them to adapt to a new environment without leaving behind their own culture.ĭr. It is a particularly relevant tool for counseling immigrant families in the current landscape. Elaine Congress to help social workers better understand families with different cultural backgrounds. The culturagram is a family assessment tool developed by Dr. 1 Here, we explore the 10 categories of the culturagram to understand how it can be applied in practice. Elaine Congress in the 1994 and has been continuously refined based on her experience as an accomplished social worker and academic. Social workers must combine theories with practice-from insights gathered in the field-to develop effective frameworks.

Example of genogram in social work