CROSS-CULTURAL COUNSELING IN DISASTER SETTING: A SABAH EXPERIENCE Sapora Sipon, Adi Fahrudin and Ahmad Rozelan Yunus Abstract ‘The destruction und loss of life generated by disaster is widely acknowledged. Disasters have claimed many lives, destroyed properties and caused emotional and psychological impact of the victims. Thus. Praviding mental health services to disasters’ victims is a much-needed professional endeavor for a counselor seeking to assist these victims. This paper is an attempt of the writers to look into the role of counselors in providing counseling in a multi-racial state, Sabah in the wake of disasters. Besides, this paper will also examine the role of culture in counseling especially in disaster setting. INTRODUCTION Sabah is a multi-racial state. Given that, its population practices diverse aspects and level of cultural, religious, language and other socio-economic activities. In Sabah, as in other states in Malaysia, each ethnic group can freely practice their own way of life. In the past, various kinds of disaster have occurred in Sabah, Major disasters in Sabah include the Gregg Storm in Keningau and fire disasters in Papar, Kg. Likas and Kg Gaya. In many areas within Sabah, natural or man-made disaster will continue to represent a threat to individuals and communities. The destruction and loss of life is generated by disasters is widely acknowledged and the widespread of psychological social, community and economic problems they leave in their wake, As these disasters have claimed many lives, destroyed properties and caused emotional and psychological impact of the victims, providing mental health services such as counseling are a critical call. In providing mental health services to a population practicing diverse aspects and level of cultural, religious, language and other socio-economic activities, counselors in Sabah need to be aware of, and sensitive to cultural norms and differences. When counselors seek to assist disasters victims, it is essential that they have an understanding of the cultural norms and expectation of the population they hope to assist. Pedersen (1997) states that counselors are increasingly confronted with pressure from culturally different climate that challenge their basic assumptions about mental health. In relation to that, within the field of counseling, publication has begun to acknowledge the importance of cultural variables in all counseling. (Marsella, & Pedersen, 1981). This is especially true for disaster mental health professionals. Thus, this paper will look into the role of culture in providing counseling to disaster victims especially in Sabah. Sabah The state of Sabah is often referred to as land below the wind. Sabah is located at the northern eastern part of the island of Borneo. It covers a land ared of 735,711 sq. km and is bounded by Sarawak and Brunei Darulssalam to the West and by Kalimantan to the South. Sabah was incorporated into Malaysia in 1963 together with Sarawak, thereby forming the two EAST Malaysia states. The other states of Malaysia are in the Peninsula, The ethnic composition of Sabah is more complex and varied. SAWO (1992) states that there are 39 different ethnic groups listed under the Sabah Monograph (1984). In the 1970 Census report, the 513Dusun/Kadazan is the largest indigenous group forming 28.3 percent of the populatig followed by the Bajaus and Muruts (4.8%). Other indigenous communities include the Brung Malays, Lotud, Rungus, Tambonou, Paitan, Suluk, Orang Sungai, Bonggi, Lun Dayeh Ilanun and Sino-native. They constitute 19.2% of the population. The Chinese constitutes 21.4 percent of the population while 7% are Eurasians, Indians, Pakistanis and other, 3 Culture diversity in Sabah. The issue of counseling in a multi-cultural setting such as Sabah is rather difficult to address in a simple manneg, The reason is Sabah is a multi-racial state. Given that, its population practices diverse aspects and level of cultural, religious, language and other socio economic activities. In discussing the cultural diversity in Sabah, maybe it is best to quote Osman in Wehrly (1995) as saying that “Malaysia counselors have always been called upon to serve clients from a variety of ethnic, religions and socio-economic backgrounds. Sensitivity to this diverse population is of great asset for counselor and other helping professionals. counseling is a relatively recent service in Sabah.” (pg. 48) The role of culture in counseling The function of culture is to provide the counselor with a framework to better comprehend the systems of relationship involved in multicultural counseling that they have in the past, Johnson (1990), Sue and Zane (1987) state that the counselor's ability to offer culturally appropriate treatment is the most important reason ethnic minorities are inadequately served as mental health services. The importance of culture in counseling disaster victims is obvious. Axelson (1993) states that culture has a critical and inescapable influence on the behavior of all people. An effective counselor needs to understand the role of culture in his or her life and also the life of his client. Hoare (1991) indicates that individual can never completely escape the reality of their own culturally influenced identity and be totally objective in understanding the culturally reality of another's identity. He further stresses that with culture playing such a powerful role in identity development, counselors are wise to understand the impact of culture on all people. Cross-cultural counseling in disaster setting: A Sabah experience. Normally, there are four types of setting in the cross-cultural counseling. The homogenous telationship involves a relationship where the counselor and the client are of the same n and the racial group. Hence, a description of major counseling relationship in Sabah can be described as the cross-religious relationship and cross- racial counseling relationship. ‘Setting I Setting 2 Indigenous counselor Indigenous counselor Indigenous client Non-indigenous client Setting 3 Setting 4 514Non-indigenous counselor Non-indigendus counselor Indigenous client Non-indigenous client Figure 1: Cross-racial counseling relationship in Sabah Setting 1 Setting 2 Muslim counselor Muslim counselor Muslim client Non-Mustim client Setting 3 ~ Setting 4 | Non-Muslim counselor Non-Muslim counselor Muslim client Non-Muslim client Figure 2: The cross-religion counseling relationship Indigenous communities: Malay-Brunei, Dusun/Kadazan, Bajau, Muruts, Lotud, Rungus, Tambonou, Paitan, Suluk, Orang Sungai, Bonggi, Lun Dayeh Iilanun and Sino-native. indigenous communities: Chinese, Indians, Eurasians, Indians, Pakistanis and other communities. Muslim communities: Bajaus, kadazan, Brunei-Malays, Bugis. Non-Muslim communities: Kadazan-Dusun, Murut, Lotud, Tambanou, Bonggi, Lun Dayeh. In Figure 1 and 2 above, four types of counseling prevail in the cross-racial and cross- religious context. The first setting is homogenous relationship where the religious and racial group is the same. Generally, counselors and clients do not encounter a lot of problems with jous and cultural differences and bias. The second category of cross-religious and cross-racial relationship is represented in setting 2 and 3. Here, the counselor and client come from different religious and cultural backgrounds. It is expected that several issues of cultural differences will arise. Some of the problems maybe the language problem, lack of other religious and racial knowledge, racial polarization and ethnocentrism. The final category of relationship is the non-indigenous contact. It is, highly heterogeneous, containing multi-cultural differences of many ethnic groups such as the Kadazan, Rungus, Lotud and Brunei-Malay A few disaster studies conducted in Sabah show that the victims comprise of diverse ethnic groups. For example, a study conducted by Mohamad Haji Yusuf et al (2000) show that the disaster victims comprise of diverse ethnic groups. They include the Bajaus, Indonesian Bugis, Suluk-Philipines, Indonesian-Javanese, Murut, Dusun, Pakistanis and a mixture of Kadazan, Iban, Chinese, Bidayuh and Tidung. In another study conducted by Sapora Sipon et, al (2000) among fire victims in Kampong Kawang, Papar, the victims were also of diverse ethnic groups. As the victims came from pluralistic population, counselors need to be aware and sensitive to the cultural differences in providing mental health services. It is essential that they have an understanding of the cultural norms and expectations of the victims they hope (0 assist. Mak & Nadelson (1996) state that how different cultural groups handle stress and deal with stressors, their abilities, needs and desires for certain types of assistance, their religious orientation, beliefs, their ways of handling and dealing with grief and loss are just dome of the variables which are affected by cultural differences. SISSapora Sipon (2000) relates how counselors need to be aware of and sensitive to cultural norms and differences when providing counseling to disaster victims. In a group counseling conducted among fire disaster victims of diverse population, the counselor was careful to be aware of and sensitive to the cultural norms and differences of the victims for merely getting members of different groups together is not enough to produce understanding and harmony. Here, the counselor understands that cultural awareness protects the counselor against either underemphasizing or overemphasizing cultural differences in counseling. The direction of change depends on whether it occurs under favorable conditions that tend to reduce prejudice, or unfavorable conditions that tend to increase it. In order for the group to work out well, five favorable conditions suggested by Amir (1969) were used: (1). When there is equal status contact between the members of the various ethnic groups: (2) when the social climate is likely to promote intergroup contact (3), when the contact is intimate rather than casual (4), when the contact is pleasant or rewarding and finally (5) when the members of both groups interact in functionally important activities toward super ordinate goals. Taking the five conditions into account, the counselor began the counseling group with an opening statement about the purpose of the group. The main objective of the group was to help bring them come to terms with tragedy and regain their sense of control. Members were free to reveal their past, present and future feeling concerning the tragedy. In the group discussion, it was found that, members were willing to reveal their feelings of the tragedy and how they were able to cope with the disaster, Depression and anxiety appear to be the most common reactions to severe crises and disasters. Everly (1995) states that the most common symptoms displayed across the culture were associated with the diagnosis of depression and anxiety. A study conducted by Mohamad Haji Yusof et al (2000) show that the subjects experienced high level of anxiety. In another study conducted by Sapora Sipon (2000) among fire victims in Kawang, Papar. 40.3% of the victims experienced anxiety and were shocked and saddened by the tragedy. In another fire tragedy in Kg Gaya, Sabah, a victim was interviewed and reported to feel depressed. The victim was also reported to experience a sense of disbelief and confusion. Borneo Post (2001) relates the anxiety experienced by a landslide disaster victim and psychological impact of a landslide disaster in Kg Lok Banau, Sabah. [t states that the relatives of the landslide could not control their emotion and cried hysterically after the disaster. As a result, villages and fire and services personnel had a hard time consoling the grieving relatives. Across culture, people react differently for dealing with disasters. Pennebaker (1985) states people differ in what they belief and understand about life and death, what they feel, what elicits those feelings, the perceived implications of those feelings, the way they express those feelings and the techniques for dealing with hose feelings that cannot be directly expressed. Sapora Sipon (2000) relates how a fire disaster victim coped by using story as an opportunity to face, accept, and acknowledge powerful situations. Here, the victim was able to restore his own emotional equilibrium. 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