The Effects and Benefits of Bilingual Social Workers

Abstract

By Victoria Pasini, Social Work

Advisor: Gary Dick

Presentation ID: AM_A47

Abstract: When students and clients are faced with a life problem, they often times seek help from a professional, most commonly social workers. In the United States, one in five residents speak a foreign language in their home. If a client is seeking services but can not obtain a social worker that can speak in their native tongue, this creates discrepancies across not only the social work platform but the United State's competency as a whole. This study examines this problem by interviewing and surveying Limited English Proficient (LEP) student's and non-LEP student's from a local Cincinnati public High School. Both populations undercover truths of what it is like to have someone that comes from the same cultural background, can speak in the client's native language, and expresses similar attitudes on life. Each subject had access to either a bilingual and a non-bilingual social worker. More research needs to be conducted on the effects and benefits of bilingual social workers and the desperate need for them in the social work profession.