In recent years, there have been increasing national calls for patient-centered, culturally sensitive health care (PC-CSHC). The impetus for these calls include (a) the reality that health care providers are increasingly having to provide health care to a more culturally diverse patient population without the necessary training to do so effectively, (b) the growing evidence that culturally insensitive health care is a major contributor to the costly health disparities that plague our nation, and (c) the fact that racial/ ethnic minorities and individuals with low household incomes are more likely than their non-Hispanic white and higher-income counterparts to experience culturally insensitive health care and dissatisfaction with health care-health care experiences that have been linked to poorer health outcomes. This article (a) presents literature on the definition of PC-CSHC and the need for this care, (b) presents research on assessing and promoting this care, and (c) offers research-informed strategies and future directions for customizing and institutionalizing this care.

Significant health disparities continue to plague many groups of people who have been systematically oppressed and largely unrepresented in health research. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a collaborative research approach that has been shown to be effective in addressing health disparities; a community-university partnership approach can be used to conduct this research. Counseling psychologists are well suited to establish and lead CBPR partnerships, yet there is a paucity of research to guide them in utilizing effective leadership approaches when conducting CBPR for reducing health disparities. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to (a) review existing leadership models applicable to conducting CBPR; (b) identify guiding principles of socially just leadership that emerged from the aforementioned review; (c) offer an example of how the guiding principles were used in a community-university partnership, highlighting challenges, solutions, and lessons learned; and (d) discuss the benefits of socially just leadership for counseling psychologists.

On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of The Counseling Psychologist, we reflect on the many contributions that counseling psychologists have made and are poised to make in the areas of behavioral health and behavioral health care. We note that psychologists’ engagement in health promotion and prevention of behavioral, mental, and emotional disorders is consistent with counseling psychology values. We provide a concise review of theories that are widely applied in behavioral health contexts and discuss ways in which counseling psychologists may apply these theories to help ameliorate health disparities, empower communities to take control of their own health, and promote social justice. In addition, we highlight the need to create interdisciplinary partnerships to conduct culturally sensitive research on the bi-directional relationship between mental health and physical health. The article ends with wide-ranging implications and recommendations for theory development, research, training, practice, and advocacy.

Summary Non‐Hispanic Black women have the highest rates of overweight/obesity of any group in the United States. To date, few interventions have worked to reduce overweight/obesity in this population. This study investigated the views of Black women with overweight and obesity treated in a primary care setting regarding desired and undesired verbal and non‐verbal behaviours by providers in provider‐patient clinical encounters focused on losing weight, maintaining weight loss, and/or obesity. Two focus groups and an individual interview (n = 15) were conducted. Qualitative data analysis yielded five distinct themes, with 11 codes (listed in parenthesis): (a) desired weight‐focused discussions (codes: Discussing weight loss with patients and discussing weight‐loss maintenance with patients), (b) desired weight‐focused support (codes: Supporting patients experiencing weight loss and supporting patients experiencing weight gain), (c) undesired weight‐focused discussions (codes: Things to avoid during weight loss discussions and things to avoid during weight gain discussions), (d) desired attitudes and behaviours during weight‐focused discussions (codes: Show caring and understanding and encourage behaviour change for weight loss), and (e) building physician‐patient rapport (codes: Enable patients to feel respected by doctors, enable patients to feel comfortable with doctors and enable patients to trust their doctors). The qualitative approach employed in this study generates a deep understanding not only of the experiences of Black women patients but also of potential strategies that physicians could employ to succeed in their discussions with patients regarding healthy weight achievement and maintenance.

Research suggests that patient-centered culturally sensitive health care may be an important precursor to patient satisfaction and treatment adherence. Data from this study are a subset from the data collected for the Patient-Centered Culturally Sensitive Health Care and Health Promotion Research Project. The present study was designed to (a) explore the relationship between patients’ perceived patient-centered cultural sensitivity of their health care sites (ie, the physical and social environment and clinic policies) and their self-reported adherence to treatment and (b) investigate whether this relationship is mediated by satisfaction with health care experienced. Participants consisted of a low-income, culturally diverse sample of 1581 patients from 67 health care sites across the United States. A significant positive relationship between patients’ perceived patient-centered cultural sensitivity of their health care sites and their self-reported treatment adherence to a prescribed regimen was observed. Patient satisfaction with care partially mediated the relationship between these 2 variables. Assessing the level of patient-centered cultural sensitivity patients perceive in their health care sites might provide guidance to health care administrators as to how to make their sites more culturally sensitive from the perspective of patients. This, in turn, might increase patients’ treatment adherence, leading to improved health outcomes.