Preparing for a Culturally Responsive Home Visit: 10 Things to Do

As a home visitor, how can you be more culturally responsive when working with families whose cultural and linguistic backgrounds differ from your own? Today’s post provides some tips for a culturally responsive first home visit with a family. Adapted from Christa Haring & Angela Rau’s new book Coaching in Home Visiting, from a chapter by Lori A. Bass and Rihana S. Mason, these tips will help you prepare well and set a tone for a productive and respectful relationship with the family.

Assign team members who are familiar with the client’s culture. In a perfect world, at least one team member will have lived or will be familiar with the client’s experiences. Assigning home visiting teams like this whenever possible will allow for more culturally responsive interactions between clients and home visiting teams.

Prepare for differences. It’s not always possible to assign a team member who is familiar with the client’s culture and experiences, so your team may need to do additional research. Be prepared to listen to group and community members. Engage in perspective-taking. Discuss commonly encountered situations that affect diverse communities and think about empathetic responses. Be ready to work with clients who have a different perception of situations than the team; different interaction styles; different discipline practices; different standards of cleanliness; and different experiences related to employment, food, housing, and more.

Role-play different scenarios. This is a helpful way to assess how culturally responsive your team’s intake practices are. What is it like to go through the intake process? Do you feel like the intake procedures are welcoming and supportive? Is the purpose of the questions clear to you? Is the approach straightforward? Are you able to answer questions fully? Are your questions answered?

Plan your attire thoughtfully. Wear comfortable, washable clothing that is weather-appropriate and that allows you to sit and stand from the floor or a chair without difficulty. Wear slip-on shoes so you can remove them easily as needed, since many clients do not wear shoes in their homes. Be aware of any logos or images on clothing and consider whether they give away differences in your positionality. (This consideration also extends to jewelry, which can signify positionality and/or personal beliefs that your clients may not share.)

Watch your language. Any written materials should be written at a 6th- to 7th-grade reading level to ensure accessibility. Be sure to use clear, direct written language. If possible, written and visual information should be provided in the client’s home language. It may be helpful to verbally explain the basic evaluation and support process during the first contact and then provide a simple flowchart of the process and the team members’ roles.

Don’t get lost in jargon. If specialized vocabulary, terminology, and acronyms must be used in meetings, ensure that clients understand all the words used. Provide definitions of vocabulary/terminology and acronyms on written materials given to clients. Take the time to explain. Help your team create a safe space for anyone to ask any questions.

Factor in time for interpretation. If interpreters are needed during meetings and appointments, acknowledge that extra time may be required if the interpreter and the client speak different dialects. There are substantial grammar, semantic, and phonological differences between many dialects—for example, Caribbean, Mexican, and South American Spanish. These differences may make interpretation challenging in real time.

Set clear guidelines around protective services. Because home visitors are mandated reporters, everyone must be clear about when social services like child or adult protective services or the police should be contacted. A cluttered living space is not a reason to contact social services; a lack of food, running water, or apparent signs of abuse or neglect would be.

Develop lists of community resources like food pantries, respite services for individuals with special needs, free or low-cost legal services, thrift stores that sell clothing and children’s supplies, libraries and toy lending libraries, and community agencies that may be able to provide help with housing and/or utility payments.

Make it RAIN. To keep cultural responsivity at the forefront of your planning, consider how well your supports “make it RAIN.” This acronym stands for:

• Reach—How can we help our clients reach their goals?
• Awareness—How aware are clients of the need for supports?
• Inclusiveness—How inclusive are our practices?
• Necessity—Are the supports necessary? Are they purposeful? What does the client think?

Keep in mind that current referral and support systems were designed using mainstream cultural perspectives. They dictate assumptions about time concepts, relationship dynamics, and available supports. The person completing the intake also asks many personal questions about the client, which firmly tips the power in the relationship toward the home visiting team. To be an effective partner for culturally and linguistically diverse families, consider these dynamics and proactively plan ways to be more culturally responsive in your day-to-day interactions with diverse families.

For more practical guidance on cultural responsiveness at the home visitor level and the systems level, add the book behind today’s blog post to your professional library!