“Ethical Considerations for Multi-Cultural Competency: Increasing Quality of Care for Older Adults from the Muslim Community,” a presentation hosted by the Graduate College of Social Work Alumni Association, will help social work professionals work with the elderly Muslim community, a reflection of Houston’s significant Muslim community and the growing communities, across the nation Wednesday in Kingwood.
“There is a growing Muslim community in Houston and the U.S. at large,” said GCSWAA Vice President Deborah Elizondo-Brady. “We want to welcome our Muslim neighbors and de-mystify who they are and better understand them.”
Presentation speaker and UH alumna Maz Khan considers herself a part of the Muslim community and said she has dedicated more than five years to present the topic and that attendees can learn about some critical cultural differences.
“They can benefit by enhancing their knowledge about some of the cultural traditions of the Muslim community,” Khan said.
“It’s also to dispel and confirm myths that people may have in regards to the Muslim culture and traditions. Knowing what diet restrictions they have, prayer timings that may affect health care practice, the restrictions that some Muslims may have that may affect social work practice are all highlighted, discussed and joked about.”
GCSWAA President Tony Fernandez said the seats are not only filling up quickly, but the presentation will also cover an excellent topic that will provide a one-hour continuing education credit to all social workers in the Houston community.
Elizondo-Brady said the previous events held other Houston areas have had an overwhelming response from companies who have voiced their interest and support. She also said there has been an increase in community interest from other social workers who want to serve on the committee and become part of the events.
“We formed a CEU Committee and decided our GCSW Alumni Board needed to do something new and unprecedented and to reach out geographically to our alumni by having these monthly CEU presentations all over Houston,” Elizondo-Brady said.
“Our alumni board has social workers who are capable of presenting on important topics of interest and we wanted to display the diverse talent of our social work alumni board by having them present throughout our series.”
Future topics for the presentations will include “Transgender Issues 101,” “Obsessive Compulsive Disorders” and “Children’s Grief.” Elizondo-Brady said that starting in February 2015 events will transition from being held monthly to every other month and will be more centrally located.
For more information on the event, click here.
