This document contains a discussion post from an online social work course. It includes two peer responses analyzing quotes from a study on single room occupancy (SRO) hotels and homeless women. The peers propose interventions and discuss how to culturally adapt them. Peer 1 recommends securing funding for trauma-sensitive SRO housing and incorporating community feedback. Peer 2 suggests building new homes in safer neighborhoods and providing job training. Both peers discuss adapting their proposals for the African American community, citing sources on cultural adaptation.

1. SOCW 6311 WK 5 responses
Respond to at least two colleagues each one has to be answered
separately name first then response
Bottom of Form
Respond
to
at least two
colleagues by doing all of the following:
· Respond to at least 2 of your colleagues and elaborate on their
recommendations for cultural adaptation with the group they
identified. For example, you might discuss a merit or limitation
of the cultural adaptation that your colleague proposed. Or you
might suggest an alternative application of one of Marsigilia
and Booth’s cultural adaptation.
Instructor wants lay out like this:
Respond to at least two colleagues ( 2 peers posts are provided)
by doing all of the following:
Identify strengths of your colleagues’ analyses and areas in
which the analyses could be improved.
Your response
Address his or her evaluation of the efficacy and applicability
of the evidence-based practice,

2. Your response
[Evaluate] his or her identification of factors that could support
or hinder the implementation of the evidence-based practice,
Your response
And [evaluate] his or her solution for mitigating those factors.
Your response
Offer additional insight to your colleagues by either identifying
additional factors that may support or limit implementation of
the evidence-based practice or an alternative solution for
mitigating one of the limitations that your colleagues identified.
Your response
References
Your response
PEER 1
Katie Otte
Using one of the direct quotes and/or photos from Knight et
al.’s study, analyze it by drawing up a tentative meaning.
The quote I selected to analyze for this discussion post is:
“[The homeless shelter administrator] told me I would find a
place [through a subsidized program] if I work with them. And
they did find me a lot of places, but I didn’t want to go, because

3. [those] SROs they have now are really nasty. Really tore up,
tore down. Syringes in the bathroom. Blood on the toilet.
Because you use the same toilet that everybody else uses. So it
wasn’t sanitized. So I didn’t want to go. And I found the Martin
Hotel and I went in and it was a really clean, nice place. So I
went back to [the shelter] and I asked them ‘Can you please get
me a place inside that hotel?’ They said that would be cool, they
would work on it. And within two, three weeks I had a place at
the Martin.” (Knight, Lopez, Comfort, Shumway, Cohen, &
Riley, 2014).
This quote reflects a woman who expressed her need and desire
to have an SRO that met her mental health needs. Rather than
accepting the first available room, she chose to work with the
shelter administrator to find a more suitable place. This quote
depicts the impact that an SRO can have on a woman’s mental
health and how the environment can exacerbate their physical
and emotional health.
Discuss how this would specifically inform one intervention
recommendation you would make for social work practice with
the homeless. This recommendation can be on the micro, meso
[mezzo], or macro level.
As a social worker working with the homeless population, it
would be critical to know the impact that the living environment
can have on an occupant, specifically a woman who has
experienced trauma. The trauma cannot be stabilized if they are
living in unstable and chaotic conditions (Knight, Lopez,
Comfort, Shumway, Cohen, & Riley, 2014). Knowing that
interventions on the macro level would look at creating housing
that was sensitive to that fact. A macro-level intervention would
work with policymakers to secure funding and organize housing
that met the needs of the homeless population. Specifically,
based on the findings of the research presented in the case
study, the intervention should consider how the design of SRO’s

4. impacts women who are homeless and have a history of trauma.
Next, explain how you would adapt the above practice
recommendation that you identified so that it is culturally
sensitive and relevant for African Americans, Hispanics, or
Asian immigrants. (Select only 1 group).
Because the population being served might be culturally
diverse, cultural factors should be considered when formulating
this intervention. In looking at the above identified intervention
and adapting it to meet the needs of the African American
community, social workers need to incorporate culturally based
values and diverse ways of knowing within that culture
(Marsigla and Booth, 2015). One way to ensure this is by the
social worker recognizing that the responsibility for cultural
adaptation lies with everyone in the relationship, not just the
client (Marsigla & Booth, 2015). Meaning, the social worker
should be aware that their responsibility in making the
adaptation happen is equal to the clients.
Apply one of the cultural adaptations that Marsigilia and Booth
reviewed (i.e., content adaption to include surface and/or deep
culture, cognitive adaptations, affective-motivational
adaptations, etc.)(pp. 424-426). Be as specific as you can, using
citations to support your ideas.
A cultural adaptation that could be applied in this scenario is a
process model of adaptation (Marsigla & Booth, 2015). This
adaptation first builds on creating a partnership with members
of the identified community (Marsigla & Booth, 2015). This is
important as an indicator of an effective therapeutic alliance
starts with a strong foundational relationship. This adaptation
allows for flexibility in that it provides adjustments to the
initial framework to align better with the identified culture
when mismatches are identified (Marsigla & Booth, 2015). This
is done through interviews, focus groups, and surveys which

5. collect data about social and cultural context that could affect
the outcome of the intervention (Marsigla & Booth, 2015).
Applying this adaptation to the case of SRO’s and African-
American women, a social worker might start first at a homeless
shelter developing relationships and gathering data about the
needs of that community. From there, an intervention might be
selected and/or modified based on the findings from this first
step. This approach should be continuously tested to ensure that
the original effects from the intervention are preserved
(Marsigla & Booth, 2015).
References
Knight, K.R., Lopez, A.M., Comfort, M., Shumway, M., Cohen,
J., & Riley, E.D. (2014) Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels
as mental health risk environments among impoverished women:
The intersection of policy, drug use, trauma, and urban space.
International Journal of Drug Policy, 25(3), 556-561.
Marsiglia, F.F., & Booth, J.M. (2015). Cultural adaptations of
interventions in real practice settings. Research on Social Work
Practice, 25(4), 423-432.
Peer 2
Bottom of Form
Bottom of Form
Michael White
RE: Discussion - Week 5
Top of Form

6. Using one of the direct quotes and/or photos from Knight et
al.’s study, analyze it by drawing up a tentative meaning.
Discuss how this would specifically inform one intervention
recommendation you would make for social work practice with
the homeless. This recommendation can be on the micro, meso,
or macro level.
When looking at picture 2 the view is beautiful, warm,
welcoming, safe, and clean. The first picture of a place that is
new, no one has lived in it before the woman and her family.
The new place is not worn out, beat up and seems to be in a
good neighborhood that children can play in and the mother is
safe but still watching them. The picture on the right seems like
an urban city, low-income people surrounding them in a similar
situation with no promise of getting out of the at area to live a
peaceful life. The picture shows a run-down building in the
background which would make this like living in a low-income
area because this is all they know.
The one intervention that the writer would suggest would be to
build new places for them to live in nicer neighborhoods so they
can have something to push them to being great in a better
neighborhood. If the clients continue to see rundown and
abandoned neighborhoods, they will possibly turn to drugs or
alcohol, and fell like no one cares for them. Then to make sure
the people in charge of building these homes look at the quality
of new homes they have and replace the old ones with a new
one. The goal would also to be to move the people out of the old
homes and put them in a new one. Once this is done then make
sure they are getting the proper help they need mentally or some
type of job training for jobs they can work and take care of their
family.
Next, explain how you would adapt the above practice
recommendation that you identified so that it is culturally
sensitive and relevant for African Americans, Hispanics, or

7. Asian immigrants. (Select only 1 group). Apply one of the
cultural adaptations that Marsigilia and Booth reviewed (i.e.,
content adaption to include surface and/or deep culture,
cognitive adaptations, affective-motivational adaptations, etc.)
(pp. 424-426). Be as specific as you can, using citations to
support your ideas.
“Cultural adaptation may not only preserve the ESI’s efficacy
but also enhance the results attained in clinical trials.” The
writer would work with the African American culture to
implement the CBT, job training, and moving them to another
area that is a good productive place for them to flourish and
raise their children without fear of getting put into gangs. The
intervention would be a good switch to get them to another
neighborhood to help with the influence of getting to work
harder and get some job training plus provide them with a
steady job. When African Americans get out of the hood which
means a place where there are drugs, shootings, stealing, and
even things that make families unsafe. So, putting them in a
better living situation, changing the climate, giving them job
opportunities that make them feel better will change the culture
of the African American culture. “In a recent meta-analysis,
culturally adapted treatments had a greater impact than standard
treatments, produced better outcomes, and were most successful
when they were culturally tailored to a single ethnic minority
group (Smith, Domenech, Bernal, 2010).”
Reference:
Marsiglia, F. F. & Booth, J. M. (2015). Cultural adaptations of
interventions in real practice setting. Research on Social Work
practice, 25 (4), 423-432.
Smith, T., Domenech Rodríguez, M. M., & Bernal, G. (2010).
Culture. Journal of Clinical

8. Psychology, 67, 166–175.