The problems can become especially evident in the workplace, and they can be further compounded in the mental health arena, according to presenters at a cultural competency workshop last week at Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Reservation.
More than 80 people participated in the workshop to discuss an issue that affects everyone, from mental health workers to Burger King employees.
Respect in the workplace extends into myriad areas, which is why conference sponsors - Meloney Ridley, director of the Lifelong Learning Center at Salish Kootenai College, and Bill Tuss, president of Vantage West - are already responding to demand for an additional conference in the spring. Next year's event will specifically reach out to K-12 school employees.
Paul Meyer, executive director of the Western Montana Mental Health Center, described the two-day "Cultural Competency for Mental Health Professionals Workshop" as "superb." The event, which ended Friday, was organized at the request of people who saw mental health clients slipping through the cracks after their health-care providers failed to effectively communicate with them.
Meyer said he was approached by Tom Camel, a board member of the center: "He said, 'You really need a wake-up call for some of your employees. They need to understand cultural competence issues.' I said, 'We do Tom. You need to help us.' "
Camel agreed.
"One of my passions is getting appropriate services to people of color, something that works for them," said the Vietnam veteran. "I got my own counseling from people who were not culturally competent at all. They couldn't relate to me. They couldn't understand me. It is hard to open up and understand a different culture, especially majority culture people who think they know what they're doing. ... They're in control."
He said people in control often don't think about listening.
"There's a power difference," said Camel. "Whites have power that we don't have, that Indians don't have," said the citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, who is also African American.
Workshop organizers raised issues that are often ignored in a state where nearly one in 10 adults suffer from depression. Montana also has one of the nation's highest suicide rates, according to a report of the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration. In response to the state's critical need, the Montana Legislature in 2007 increased spending for mental health services by 30 percent.
"No family escapes mental illness on some level," said Meyer, noting common effects of the diseases, which include suicide and depression. Suicide rates among Native people are typically two to three times higher than the national average.
Meyer said it's been 10 years since any of the Western Montana Mental Health Center employees last attended a workshop to help them see past the world in which they live. The center has clinics in 15 counties and 640 employees who work daily with people of all ethnic, racial, economic, religious and social backgrounds.
"Hopefully, they will leave with a better understanding of the white power structure and what that means for minority individuals in it," said Meyer. "A lot of people we serve have sort of a double whammy of a major disability and a racial identity of being a minority person. That makes it twice as hard for that person to feel competent and confident as they move forward. Our employees, in particular, need to understand that."
Kellie LaFave, a Fort Harrison Veterans Administration Medical Center suicide prevention coordinator in Helena, said the workshop made her realize she could approach her job differently.
"With the best of intentions, one could still be causing harm to others," said LaFave. "The goal in the mental health profession is not to do harm, but to do the best that you can."
It's often workers from white, middle-class upbringings who have a difficult time seeing past their own personal bias or preconceived stereotypes of different ethnic groups, said conference presenter Aida Hutz. These people often don't understand the automatic advantages that come with light skin and a middle-class lifestyle. They have only experienced a life in which they were born into a world of "white privilege," where skin color and economic factors automatically give them an edge in everything from buying a home to finding a job.
"I always thought I'm not racist," said Shirley Tiernan, a recruiter for Walla Walla University's master's degree in social work program. "It's always good for me to think about white privilege. I thought I worked hard. But I had a lot going for me. The culture accepted me."
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