Cultural competence

Somalia is a beautiful country in North-Eastern Africa


I have been thinking about this topic alot lately

Been working on a mental health needs assessment of young Somali males here in Minnesota, with a collegue.

We wanted to find out how to better reach out to and serve male Somali clients, ages 18-35 with a psychotic disorder, in Hennepin County.

I was quite humbled after we had done the twelve key informant interviews and literature search on this populations possible community mental health needs.

It is clear to me know how extremely helpful it is to know the fundamental background and history of any population we are serving. Especially those we see frequently.

The things I learned in this process include the importance of cooperation with community resources, again reminded to stop and listen and that families are my clients too, and how many barriers to serving vulnerable populations in this country are due directly or indirectly to economical factors.

I have a lot of learning to do, and a lot of changing too