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Rutgers SHP Requirements for Graduation and Course Descriptions

Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation & Counseling Professions

Psychiatric Rehabilitation

PSRT5320 - Social and Cultural Diversity Issues

Course Description

This course focuses on the development of the awareness, knowledge and skills needed to provide counseling services to individuals from diverse backgrounds. The course emphasizes increasing self-knowledge of one’s own personal cultural background as well as developing improved counseling skills to provide services in an environment of diversity.

Credits/Modes of Instruction

Credits: 3

Modes of instruction include lecture, classroom-based activities, and discussion. This course is offered in both on-campus and online formats.

Prerequisites

None

Course Goals and Outcomes:

Goals

Learn major theories of multicultural counseling, identity development, and multicultural competencies.
Increase knowledge of multicultural trends including characteristics and concerns between and within diverse groups nationally and internationally.
Develop an awareness of the dimensions of diversity including race and ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, and disability.
Increase self-awareness of beliefs and values personally held related to one’s own experience of culture and diversity.
Expand knowledge of the worldviews of various cultures including outlooks on illness and healthcare.
Examine organizational barriers encountered by individuals from diverse backgrounds and the counselor’s roles in social justice, and advocacy
Understand possible strategies for counseling individuals with disabilities from diverse backgrounds including interventions with the individual, the family, and the community.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Discuss major tenets of theories of multicultural counseling and identity development.
Describe benchmarks of multicultural competencies.
Discuss their understanding of their own culture including attitudes, beliefs, understanding and acculturative experiences, and its influence on their counseling with others.
Recognize worldviews of others from various cultures including their outlook on illness and healthcare.
Identify common barriers to counseling relationships and communication.
Use counseling strategies that take into account in the counseling process the interaction of health issues and diversity.
Describe organizational barriers faced by individuals from diverse backgrounds in the work place and discuss the counselor’s role in developing strategies that promote organizational changes that may foster diversity competence.
Identify and address ethical and legal issues related to diversity.
Demonstrate several counseling skills to facilitate communication with individuals and their families from diverse backgrounds.