Developing social work students’ reflectivity in cultural indigenization of mental health practice

Abstract

Cultural indigenization is important in mental health practice within various cultural contexts. In this paper, the writer describes the teaching experience in developing the reflectivity of social work students in mental health practice. By means of various teaching and learning strategies, students achieve various levels of reflectivity in cultural indigenization. They were: basic reflectivity by knowing the difference between western and Chinese concepts of mental health; consciousness reflectivity by bewaring one’s own cultural orientation in mental health and mental illness; critical reflectivity by reflecting one’s own cultural orientation in mental health practice with clients with mental illness.