Often a developmental approach that looks at three stages of immigration (pre-migration, transit, and current situation) is helpful in working with immigrants. For example, the social worker can study what was the immigrants’ experience in their country of origin and in transit. To truly understand immigrant families learning about an immigrant's history is important. In constructing the culturagram a retrospective approach is also useful. Sometimes it is helpful, however, to construct the culturagram at different points of time, first at the beginning of intervention and then at a future point.

While using the culturagram the practitioner is required to look at the family in the here and now. The culturagram can be useful in arriving at decisions about treatment planning and intervention. Not only does it help the social worker achieve greater understanding of the culture of a family, it can also point the way toward future treatment. The culturagram has been seen as an essential tool in helping social workers work more effectively with families from many different cultures. values about family-structure, power, myths, and rules.oppression, discrimination, bias, and racism.language spoken at home and in the community.health beliefs and access to health care.contact with cultural and religious institutions, holidays, food, and clothing.First developed in 1994 and then revised in 2000 and again in 2009, the culturagram examines the following areas: Completing a culturagram on a family can help a clinician develop a better understanding of the family. The culturagram represents an attempt to individualize culturally diverse families (Congress & Kung, 2013). This tool has been applied to work with people of color (Lum, 2004), battered women (Congress & Brownell, 2007), children (Congress, 2001), older people (Brownell & Fenley, 2009), families in crisis (Congress, 2000), Mexican families (Congress, 2004a), Latino and Asian families (Congress & Kung, 2005), immigrant families with health problems (Congress, 2004b Congress, 2013) and in family development theory (Congress, 2008). The culturagram was developed to help in understanding the cultural background of culture in families (Congress, 1994, 1997 Congress & Kung, 2013). While the eco-map (Hartman, 1995) and genogram (McGoldrick, Gerson, & Perry, 2008) are useful tools in assessing the family, neither emphasize the important role of culture in understanding the family. Furthermore, family members who regularly work or attend school in the larger community may be more acculturated than those who stay at home. Even within the same family group, each member has had a different immigration and acculturation experience, as often family members immigrate at different times and some members may be U.S. Yet both families are considered Hispanic/Latino. A Puerto Rican family in which all members are American citizens and have lived in the United States for 20 years is very different from an undocumented Mexican family that emigrated last month. Assessing a family only in terms of a specific cultural identity, however, may lead to overgeneralization and stereotyping (Congress & Kung, 2013). When attempting to understand culturally diverse families, families needed to be understood within a cultural context. This tool grew out of the recognition that families are becoming increasingly culturally diverse and social workers must be able to understand cultural differences between and within families. It can be helpful in assessment and intervention planning for culturally diverse families. A culturagram is a family assessment tool that provides a graphical representation of various aspects of an individual and family's culture. As the number and diversity of immigrants has increased dramatically in the United States (Camarota, 2007) there is increased need for clinicians to understand the cultural backgrounds of their clients. In social work and other fields, cultural competence is an important skill.

A culturagram is a family assessment tool used in the practice of social work which was first introduced by Fordham University professor, Dr.

Cultural genogram social work