Social Diversity and Culture

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Literature Review

Understanding social diversity is a key prerequisite to the development of human races. The appreciation of social diversity acknowledges that societies are composed of interrelated individuals and interdependent upon each other (Pallotta-Chiarolli 2001, p. 36). The dynamism of the society is a key factor to be considered in societies that societies are in a state of flux and change is rapid. In most societies individuals are unique, each has his/ her idiosyncrasies that can never be compared but just appreciated.

Statistics indicate that most youth who are healthy and well educated are very competent in contributing to society despite their shifting in the world. Normally as indicated, the youth are the future of society (Sue 1997, p. 101).

In Australia which is a multi-cultural society, about 16% of its youth are born from other countries while the non- English speaking backgrounds contribute to 24% of the youth in Australia (Pollack 1998, pp. 41). This, therefore, puts in a major challenge in youth health care due to the multicultural setting and diversity.

The youth in their 20s are highly prone to diseases as well as risky behaviors due to their mentality of having to experience the world as it is their nature as the brain develops (Plummer 1999, p. 69).

The interplay of cultures in Australia gives a major challenge to health professionals who have to be a culturally diverse group to enable proper interaction with the youth and their different families. Scientists, researchers, and clinicians are among the professional who must respect and promote culture, traditions, family backgrounds to enhance the health of a society. The greater population of youths in many countries are faced with situations and threats that are related to their health (Phillips 1993, p. 180).

Health education and promotion among the youth are among the major concerns of many community-based organizations, research, and clinical studies aimed at improving youth health concerning cultural diversity. During the 1990s, the World Health Organization did a worldwide exercise on sustaining youth health that was based on an international legal framework based on the UN charter (Weidlich 2000, p. 47) However, the international demographic shift and policy check and the development of a program and research regarding the youth health was not absolute. This legal framework did not see the light of the day due to failed implementation.

The twenty-seventh special session of the General Assembly in 2002 stated that the large majority of youth are faced with many problems worldwide but did not come with practical solutions. Among the problems included total insecurity, war, lack of occupation, family stress, sexual health problems, alcohol, drug abuse, mental health problems, HIV, and Tuberculosis.

Most of these problems were faced by the youth who inhibited multi-cultural societies due to a lack of avenues of presenting their problems to the right experts at the right time.

In trying to come up with solutions to this problem, one needs to apply a social diversity model which is appropriate. In this sense, the ecological systems theory developed by Bronfenbrenne analyzes child development in the context of systems relationship that comprises one’s environment (Allee 1942, p. 49). The interaction of a child’s immediate family and societal landscape shapes his/her social development and this changes from one layer of life to another. The ecological approach comprises five levels of development. These include the microsystem the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and the chronosystem.

The microsystem is the closest to a child’s development and the child has direct contact with this environment and its surrounding (Pease 2002, p 111). This environment comprises the family, school, neighborhood among others. Here, the impact of this environment may be experienced in two directions. This may be either away or towards one’s personality. In this regard, a youth may be influenced by the believes and the behavior of the parent at the same time he/she may influence the behavior of the parents. At this level, interactions are very important because they try to give the image of a person accurately with keen interest. This level is very mandatory since it gives the greatest impact on the development of a person.

The mesosystem or environment comprises the interconnection between environments at the microsystem. This for instance the child’s school environment and the home environment. This may include gained family experience and school experience or even church. In some institutions where the girl child is rejected by their parents at home do face a very hard time at school because such a child lacks a lot of parental care and confidence when dealing with the external world. Regarding health, such a youth who undergoes this failure to combine both the school and home environments is faced with a lot of perceived intimidation especially when such a person lands in a society whose values are different from his own.

The exosystem is the social system whose involvement by the child is not direct. At this level, structures interact directly with the microsystem impacting the child’s development directly. For instance, the workplace of parents and their schedules can affect the development of a child through the child is not directly involved but the impact is recorded (Wilson 1971, p. 180). If the parent travels a lot, then the child ends up losing a lot of care from the parent.

Putting this in a socially diverse society, then the youth are likely not to get the time and talk with their parents or guardians about their health or even the guardians are not likely to notice changes in them since they lack the time (Pallotta-Chiarolli 1998, p. 81).

The macrosystem is the outer layer in the development of a child. It comprises society and its rules, norms, customs, and laws. The macrosystem influences all other levels of a child’s development. If the parent teaches the child bad manners, then this affects the macro system of the child. Most children misbehave because they watch society and see such behaviors as drunkenness, smoking, robbery, and many others. When a youth gets to imitate such behaviors, then it is hard to eliminate them since the things that this are socially accepted behavior (Pallotta-Chiarolli 2001, p. 57). Youths involved in drug abuse are not of their own choice but because they witnessed people do it without being corrected.

The chain system relates to dimensions of time to a child’s development in various environments. These elements can be internal like the time the parents died internally as the psychological alteration when the child is aging (Zimmermann 2000, p. 149). The critical environment in time relates to the development of a child. Some social-historical problems affecting the youth nowadays can be traced back to the levels of development. It results in some youths in behaviors that are too risky like prostitution or even drug abuse. These affairs are too risky to the heath of youths with most of them resulting in HIV Aids contracted through unprotected sex. This may also lead to stress and depression among the youth (Kivel 1999, p. 291).

The government of Australia has employed some strategies to handle the issues of the youth in such a socially diverse society. This national drive was aimed at national unity.

The National Multicultural Advisory Council was formed to address the reality of Australia’s social development challenge. The council since its establishment enacted anti-discriminatory laws, government programs and projects have been formed tailored to suit the society due to the sensitive needs of the clients (Kipnis 1999, p. 130). Since the 1960s the government was alert of the required awareness of the government services to respond to complexities of community needs especially the new people who were coming to Australia. The key in this issue was to define the relationship between the new coming migrants and the receiving society comprising of the Australians. In the 1970s, a policy of multicultural diversity was developed to address the issue of Australian cultural diversity. The policy took into consideration the youth who were the majority of the immigrants into the country. It encompassed their entire needs not forgetting health as a priority. It allowed for extraordinary consultations with clinicians and counselors to get them assisted with social complexities that could have resulted in dangerous encounters or involvements that are risky and deadly to the youths (O’Donnell 2000, p. 97). The policy allowed for the existence of community-based organizations to address the plight of the youth especially and the society of the Australians as a whole.

The National Agenda for a multicultural Australia was a government policy whose strategy was to stabilize the appreciation of social diversity in Australia. The Commonwealth defined multicultural as a term that describes the ethnic diversity that existed in contemporary Australia. The policy was developed in 1989. Among the dimensions of the policy were that cultural identity was the right of the Australians to share and express cultural background and heritage including language. It also comprised of the fact that social justice was a right of all Australians (Michael 2000, p. 120). This ultimately stated that also equal treatment and removal of barriers of race, ethnicity, cultural background were the role of all Australians including the professionals in government and the private sector.

The multicultural policy of Australia in 1989 was based on three major social tenets in Australian society. It was that the policy was to be a unifying factor to all Australians and show commitment for the future of the country (Lloyd 1997, p. 70). It also required the basic acceptance of the constitution and the rule of law and equality of all races without discrimination. The policy was also categorical on the aspect of the expression of one’s own culture (Kindlon 1999, pp. 27). It stated that this was a reciprocal process to accept the right of others to express their views and values of their culture.

The policy set apart several program strategies to help the situation of respect of cultural diversity in Australia. The strategies were aimed at improving and putting more recognition to skills, qualifications, and capabilities held by immigrants. This was to open up employment opportunities to immigrants to make the theme feel part of Australia. The government organized a national campaign on cultural ethics and diversity to put its hand in hand with social integration. In addition, the access and Equity strategy was strengthened by the government which removed barriers of language and culture. This was to allow equal access of services within Australis to all races (Hartley-Brewer 2001, pp. 37). Language a major barrier in a diverse society was legislated that access to knowledge of English was made open to all ethnic societies since it was the basis of expression to the society.

This kind of policy developed in Australia was however only focused on the social-political development of the youth forgetting their health in particular. None of the legislations targeted clinicians who are vital in handling the youth in occurrences when they are sick while in a new social setting. Since then it has seen some changes like in 1996, the access and Equity strategy changed to the charter of public service in a culturally diverse society (Helbing 2000, pp. 61). This charter recognized the rising health complications of the youth that needed urgent solutions. Clinicians were advised to learn how to handle the youth who presented with health problems.

The youth forms the largest population of immigrants in Australia and they are highly faced with social problems at their age which may turn to be risky for their lives (Pallotta-Chiarolli 2003, p.79). It happens that at this age, the youth’s mental development is underway and this situation can result in premature decisions like drug abuse and risky encounters like unprotected sex leading to transmission of HIV/ AIDS. Most of these youth when they realize that they are sick they are likely to stay quiet not report to anyone so it is the responsibility of well-trained counselors and clinicians to unearth the hidden truths in the mind of the youth. To manage the affairs of the youth, then the government needs to put it clear that there is a need for youth-friendly agendas (Rogers 2001, p. 76).

A major organization that has involved itself in handling youth health matters in a bid to bring solutions in Australia and its social diverse nature includes the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition formed in 2002. This organization aimed to represent the aims of the youth at a national and international level. Some of its key strategies to bring some light to the youth were to cultivate government representation of the youth. The idea here was to incorporate the youth policies into the national agenda (Allee 1942, pp. 247). For this then, they wanted some youth to be part of the government to push for these policies. Secondly, they wanted to represent the rights of the youth at a national level. This was to be done by instituting the youth office at various locations to get a national representation then collect relevant matters of concern from the youth. This is where health came in as part of the broad program. The youth pushed for better health care. Thirdly, they called for a collaborative effort in projects with the government, and lastly, it was to be a channel of information between the government and the youth.

The other organization that was established to handle youth matters was the Australian Council for Children and Youth Organization that was formed to assist and protect young people at their social care (Barnett 2000, p. 179) However, its main involvement was child abuse and ignored the plight of the youth and the unending social diversities.

As a health promoter using the Ottawa model of health promotion, it would make more impact on the social diversity and ignored health matters of the youth (Pollack 2000, p. 59).

The Ottawa Charter recommends the best model of health promotion. According to the charter, it stipulates five prerequisites for health promotion strategy and advocacy (David 1996, p. 157). Firstly, the making of the health policy should be incorporated into the public policy. This is putting health into the public policymakers’ agenda. Secondly, public health promotion should entail the enhancement of the support environment which may include a safe working environment and conditions such that one can be in a position to enjoy good health. Thirdly, it emphasizes on strengthening of communities on capacity building on health matters. This is supposed to equip society with necessary health precautions. Fourth is to develop skills on health through education and public campaign to empower the public (Garbarino 1999, p. 209). Lastly, the aspect of the re-orientation of health in the focus that more attention needs to be given to prevention other than cure.

The charter provides for health for all. The first steps that I would take would be advocacy for social equality and appreciation of cultural diversity as key to improved health measures taken for the youth (Faust 1994, p. 114). This would impact directly on clinicians and counselors who handle the youth when they are having complications. The other approach would be sensitive to gender issues where I would consider males and females as different when handling their issues. The special treatment goes to females during their adolescence due to their lack of confidence in personal matters. Engaging the whole family when treating a patient especially young people is at times important. In some societies, this is a family issue that needs to be done in the vicinity of the whole family (Ghaill 1994, p. 49). When attending to the youth, it should be done in a manner that signifies social integration and unity that does not bring in stereotypes. Females are normally keen on sexual attacks and are likely to bring arguments if such words are used.

Social diversity in its respect is the making of culture. The culture here is the shared meaning and behavior passed across a community within generations in a social context. The positive role of culture is to promote the growth and development of a society’s cultural concepts and beyond involve gender, age, sexuality, language, and ethnicity (Gurian 1999, pp. 113). Health service provision is faced with a major challenge with the youth from culturally diverse backgrounds. In such situations, intercultural communication and awareness are needed now that we are social beings and this is critical in affecting our interaction with one another, especially among the youth in the society.

References

Allee, W. 1942, Ecological theory. Routledge, Sydney.

Barnett, B. 2000, Providing Reproductive Health Services to Young Clients. Triangle Park Publishers, North Carolina.

David, J. 1996. Challenges of Working With Adolescent Boys. Falmer Press, London.

Faust, K. 1994, Social Analysis. CUP, Cambridge.

Ghaill, M. 1994, Youth Sexualities and Schooling. Open University Press, Philadelphia.

Garbarino, J. 1999, Why Our Sons Turn Violent. Free Press, New York.

Gurian, M. 1996, What Parents, Mentors and Educators Can Do to Shape the Youth. Putnam Publ., New York.

Gurian, M. 1999, Shaping the Moral of the youth. Tarcher Publ., New York.

Helbing, D. 2000, Understanding the Youth. CUP, Cambridge.

Hartley-Brewer, E. 2001. Raising Youth in a Diverse Culture. Fisher Books, Cambridge.

Kindlon, D.1999, Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys. Ballantine, New York.

Kipnis, A. 1999, How Counselors Can Help the Youth Become Good. Jossey Publishers, San Fransisco.

Kivel, P. 1999, Raising Our Youth with Courage. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island.

Lloyd, T. 1997, Developing youth health care policy. London: Working With Men.

Michael, S. 2000,Women’s Social Equity. Unwin publ., Sydney.

Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. 1998, A War Against social discrimination. Tarcher Publ., New York.

O’Donnell, M. 2000, Youth, Ethnicity and Class. Routledge, London.

Pease, B. 2002, Youth health in Australia. Tertiary Press, Melbourne.

Phillips, A. 1993, Parenting the Youth of the Future. Pandora publ., London.

Plummer, D. 1999, Social diversity model. Harrington Press, New York.

Pollack, W. 1998, Rescuing our Sons From ethnicity. Random House, New York.

Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. 2001, Boys Talk About What Matters. Allen & Unwin Publishers, Sydney.

Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. 1998, Young Women Speak Their Hearts. Finch Publ.,Sydney.

Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. 2003, Masculinity in Education. Open Uni. Press, Maidenhead.

Pollack, W. 2000, Health promotion skills. Random House, New York.

Rogers, M.2001, Population Concerns of the Young people. Sage, London.

Sue, W. 1997, Youth health promotion. Allen and Unwin, Sydney.

Weidlich W, 2000, Socio dynamics in the Social Sciences. Harwood Academic Publishers, New York.

Wilson, O. 1971, The Insect Societies in Australia. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

Zimmermann, G. 2000, Complexities of the youth. Sage, London.

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Social Diversity and Culture

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