CULTURAL AWARENESS IN CONTEMPORARY MENTAL HEALTH PRACTICE

The aim: To analyze cultural conditionality of mental health care practice; to explore the relationship between cultural awareness of mental health practitioners, their professional experience and professional status. Materials and methods: It was hypothesized that cultural competence is expected to emerge with professional experience of mental health practitioners. The Sociocultural Awareness Questionnaire was administered to mental health care practitioners - counselors, clinicians, and therapists - (N=62), aged 27 to 65, with professional work experience from 1 to 25 years. The majority of the respondents were from Kyiv (Ukraine). Results: There is no significant correlation between the duration of the period of professional activity of mental health care practitioners and their ideas concerning cultural awareness (r = -0.084, p = 0.515). In the same way there is no statistically significant differences (U = 397.500, p = 0.866) in cultural awareness between two groups of Mental Health care practitioners based on a professional status criterion. Conclusions: No professional experience, nor status are the basis for the sociocultural awareness of mental health practitioners. The assumption that cultural competence is expected to emerge with experience has not been confirmed during the pilot study.