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2010 JMATE Guidelines on Families and Youth and
Cultural
and Linguistic Competence
PREAMBLE
The 2010 Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness (JMATE) offers a unique opportunity for families, youth, practice, and research communities to exchange ideas and data, thereby moving the field of adolescent substance abuse treatment toward increasingly effective research designs and the implementation of evidence-based practices. Improving adolescent services involves listening to the "family voice,” and respecting that voice. As professionals, we are asking family members and youth to talk to us, to tell us their frustrations with the system, and to discuss with us what is happening in their communities. We must give them a safe environment to do so, without allowing them to be misunderstood, attacked, or belittled.
Families deserve to have access to and obtain the treatment services they need to help not only their children, but also their entire family. In order to make this a reality, we all must work together to improve the system. When professionals make comments, such as "all parents who have addicted children are addicts themselves," or "why would we want parents involved in the treatment process?" we create barriers to helping teens and their parents/caregivers. Families do not want to be negatively labeled, categorized, or talked down to. The last thing parents/ caregivers need or want is to be ignored or disrespected. JMATE’s commitment to joining with families, youth, and communities is an important beginning to giving parents/ caregivers a safe environment to share their experiences and concerns. In doing that, we will all benefit by their depth of knowledge and expertise.
As we respond to the goals of the Institute of Medicine Report, which supports the goal of systems transformation, we are called to include representation and inclusion of family, consumer, and youth voices in decision-making, implementation and the evaluation of services and supports. These guidelines were developed and adapted from the work of many key stakeholders who are paving the way for systems change. As we begin to respond to the call to action around these goals, we hope these guidelines will serve to assist you in framing your presentation(s) to be inclusive and responsive to all stakeholders for improved outcomes. This year’s JMATE conference is committed to creating a family and youth friendly environment in order to work together to improve substance abuse, mental health and co-occurring treatment and recovery systems.
Being Family and Youth Friendly
1. Acknowledge the value of persons with multiple source(s) of expertise. Professional expertise is enriched by the expertise of yourself or others who have first-hand knowledge of struggling with addiction as persons in recovery or parents/caregivers raising children with substance abuse or mental health problems. Be sensitive to the difficulties and frustrations that families experience when trying to navigate the numerous child and adolescent serving systems.
2. Acknowledge the level of family and youth involvement in the work you are presenting. Be clear about your working definitions of family and youth involvement because there are many. Offer suggestions to include and enhance family and youth involvement. Give guidance to avoid barriers that may prevent positive outcomes.
3. Use language that is respectful of families and youth. Avoid any language that could be misunderstood, degrading, blaming, or any language that refers to the family as being "the problem."
4. Use people first language, for example, "children with substance abuse, mental health, or co-occurring issues," rather than "substance abusers, mentally ill children, or mentally ill drug addicts."
5. Recognize that families and youth attending the presentations may come from various backgrounds and may be unfamiliar with professional jargon, acronyms and extremely academic language. Incorporate a variety of teaching/presentation methods that are clear-cut and easily understood.
6. Incorporate the perspectives of families and youth into sessions by including them as presenters where possible. Recognize that families and youth attending the presentations have various levels of experience participating in conferences. Be respectful, supportive, patient, and listen to them. Please recognize that the issues under discussion may be those to which you have dedicated your professional life, but they are issues intimate to the daily lives of the families and youth attending the conference.
Addressing Issues of Cultural and Linguistic Competence
1. Acknowledge your areas of expertise with specific populations, and identify to the audience your comfort level and knowledge base with culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
2. Use language that is respectful of culturally and linguistically diverse communities (e.g. do not use jargon).
3. Recognize that different communities have different learning and communication styles that are inherent to their particular cultural groups. Such factors as timing and tone of speech may influence the learning process.
4. Incorporate information and perspectives related to serving culturally and linguistically diverse populations and achieving cultural and linguistic competence into sessions.
5. When using examples, include examples representative of culturally and linguistically diverse populations by using case studies and/or vignettes.
6. Become knowledgeable of communities with diverse racial, ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds and be aware of how members of these communities describe themselves taking into account that self-identity descriptions are dynamic and may change over time.
7. When providing demographic and statistical information, identify the presence or absence of culturally and linguistically diverse populations, and provide information about ethnically, racially, and linguistically diverse populations.
8. The choice of graphic materials for PowerPoint presentations, overheads, handouts, and visual aids in presentations should reflect the populations being discussed.
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