Services And Practice In Appalachia: A Social Work Perspective 8 Pages With References

Services and Practice in Appalachia Stephanie McPeekDepartment of Social Work and Sociology, Concord UniversitySOWK 661: Appalachian Culture, Structure, and EnvironmentProfessor InghramJune 8, 2022Services and Practice in Appalachia There are many harmful stereotypes that surround Appalachian people, and they are simply false. Appalachia, as defined by the Appalachian Regional Commission, consists of portions of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, as well as the entire state of West Virginia (The Appalachian Regional Commission, 2006). When discussing culture in Appalachian areas, you are speaking for individuals in 13 different states accounting for roughly 25 million people (Ludke, 2010). There are some regional differences, but for the most part, Appalachian culture has much in common with southern and rural cultures (Obermiller, 2004). For social workers to work well with individuals from Appalachia, they need to understand the culture and assess how strongly the individual identifies with it (Salyers, 2006). Appalachian Culture and Family Structure Culture is a complex concept, and no single definition is agreed on in literature. Out of the various definitions