SHS 145 - Introduction to Disabling Conditions: Week 10 - Incorporating Disability Humility

Introduction

In finding resources this week, I came across this training video that I thought might interest you. It's kind of on the corny side, but makes a good point about how one can be unaware of their privilege. 

It's also a good way to introduce this week's topic. We will be talking about cultural humility. Here is a definition for cultural humility. It is from the CDC:

"Cultural humility is active engagement in an ongoing process of self-reflection, in which individuals seek to:

• • Examine their personal history/background and social position related to gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, profession, education, assumptions, values, beliefs, biases, and culture, and how these factors impact interpersonal interactions.
  • Reflect on how interpersonal interactions and relationships are impacted by the history, biases, norms, perception, and relative position of power of one’s professional organization.
  • Gain deeper realization, understanding, and respect of cultural differences through active inquiry, reflection, reflexivity, openness to establishing power-balanced relationships, and appreciation of another person’s/community’s/population’s expertise on the social and cultural context of their own lives (lived experience) and contributions to public health and wellbeing.
  • Recognize areas in which they do not have all the relevant experience and expertise and demonstrate a nonjudgmental willingness to learn from a person/community/population about their experiences and practices." (Principle 1: Embrace cultural humility and community engagement. (cdc.gov))

Cultural humility, as you will discover this week, is different from cultural competence. Competence means that one is skilled, that they have mastered something. It doesn't leave much room for learning. Humility is more in line with not knowing, being vulnerable and open to new discoveries about oneself and about others. It allows us to not know, to be curious, always respectful and to be more person-centered. 

In some ways, we will move out of a focus on disabilities this week as we are looking at intersectionality, i.e., the many facets that make up a person. The ability-impairment continuum is one of those many facets. 

I will leave you with one more piece to play with if you like. This is the Implicit Association Test from Harvard. I invite you to take as many of these as you like. The one that is most pertinent to this class is the "Disability" test. Take a Test (harvard.edu)

Week 10 Reading

Web articles and Resources

• Cultural Humility Primer: Peer Support Specialist and Recovery Coach Guide to Serving and Supporting Diverse Individuals and Their Recovery Journey Developed by the Peer Cultural Cooperative for the Northwest Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC), Seattle, WA, US, 2020 (This primer speaks specifically to work with substance use disorders while still providing solid information on disabilities. It is all about being of service. You are welcome to scan parts of it as it is a long document.
• What is Cultural Humility? The Basics, from the University of Oregon is a concise explanation of cultural humility and includes key attributes. 
• Rethinking Cultural Competence: Shifting to Cultural Humility Health Services Insights Volume 13, January-December 2020 (Scholarly article, but not very long)
• Three Things Clinicians Should Know About Disability. - Joel Michael Reynolds, PhD, AMA Journal of Ethics (Provides a nice definition of Disability Humility)
• Private Equity in Durable Medical Equipment: How Private Equity Profits Off of Disabled and Chronically Ill Americans., NOVEMBER 2023

While not explicitly related to cultural humility, understanding how a person's sense of identity develops in relationship to disability is part of understanding the experiences of a person's understanding of self. This article (and the link within it) explains identity development through a disability lens. Disability Identity Development and Why it is Important

Video and Web Resource

This video is on the long side (just under an hour), but watching it is informative as to how a student might experience difficulties when faced with deciding whether, when and what might happen when disclosing their disability. It is based on doctoral students seeking internships and addresses how decisions are made for students with disabilities. It is a fascinating video to watch. 

This video, from the NY Times, chronicles a filmmaker's path with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and how life decisions had to be made based on access to services. The video is just under 14 minutes. Opinion | How Health Care Makes Disability a Trap - The New York Times (nytimes.com)Links to an external site.

This video consists of conversations around cultural humility and cultural competence. It looks at the broad spectrums of culture, and includes disability as a piece of that, but it is not a major focus. The video does a great job of explaining what cultural humility is.