Respond to two colleagues

Colleague 1

Post the APA-style reference for the article you found in the library.

Mendoza, M. M., Dmitrieva, J., Perreira, K. M., Hurwich-Reiss, E., & Watamura, S. E. (2017). The effects of economic and sociocultural stressors on the well-being of children of Latino immigrants living in poverty. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 23(1), 15–26. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000111

Describe four specific psychosocial factors that should be taken into account in order to understand the psychosocial context when working with the group you selected

Immigrants experience a multitude of barriers that make it difficult to transition into American culture with the same opportunities. Some Psychosocial factors that should be taken into account are depression, lack of motivation, socioeconomic status, and system politics such as discrimination. These factors are some principles that would give a thorough understanding of the psychosocial factors that affect immigrants. An immigrant is someone that relocated to live permanently in a foreign country. In most cases, immigrants do not have access to resources that can help improve their well-being like their American counterparts. Living in poverty is associated with poorer physical health, lower academic achievement and attainment as well as an increased risk of serious emotional and behavioral problems in childhood and mental health problems in adulthood (Mendoza et al, 2017)

Identify and explain how you would apply a psychosocial intervention that addresses one of the four specific psychosocial factors you described above.

In order to effectively apply psychosocial intervention, you must understand immigrants' circumstances and barriers that limit their exposure to the best quality of care. Especially, how psychosocial factors affect future development. It is important to analyze that immigrants come from a wide range of countries that represent different cultures. Therefore, cultural awareness and humility would play a significant role in this intervention. In this case, working with the Latino culture as it pertains to poverty, is one of the major psychological interventions that would improve the well-being of this population. Exposure to the multiple physical and psychosocial risks that occur more commonly when families are facing poverty contributes to increased risk for behavior problems in low-income children (Mendoza et al, 2017). Strong case management productively provides the necessary resources that would improve their living conditions that would decrease depression and increase motivation. Prolonged exposure to poverty increases the risk for immigrants, especially children with developmental challenges, both psychologically and socially.

Identify one advantage of using a psychosocial framework in social work practice with the group you chose.

An advantage of using a psychosocial framework in social work practice working with immigrants is how health and its correlation with the system perspective are aligned with the social work practice. Overall, it would be in the best interest to understand how living in poverty affects the cognitive ability and improves living conditions. The systems perspective encourages medical and allied health professions, including social workers, to recognize and respond to the multiple systems impacting individual health and well-being (Healy, 2016)

References

Healy K. (2016). After the Biomedical Technology Revolution: Where to Now for a Bio-Psycho-Social Approach to Social Work? British journal of social work, 46(5), 1446–1462. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcv051

Mendoza, M. M., Dmitrieva, J., Perreira, K. M., Hurwich-Reiss, E., & Watamura, S. E. (2017). The effects of economic and sociocultural stressors on the well-being of children of Latino immigrants living in poverty. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 23(1), 15–26. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000111