Improving Behavioral Health Equity through Cultural Competence Training of Health Care Providers

Abstract

Racial/ethnic disparities have long persisted in the United States despite concerted health system efforts to improve access and quality of care among African Americans and Latinos. Cultural competence in the health care setting has been recognized as an important feature of high-quality health care delivery for decades and will continue to be paramount as the society in which we live becomes increasingly culturally diverse. Unfortunately, there is limited empirical evidence of patient health benefits of a culturally competent health care workforce in integrated care, its feasibility of imple­mentation, and sustainability strategies. This article reviews the status of cultural competence education in health care, the merits of continued commitment to training health care providers in integrated care settings, and policy and practice strategies to ensure emerging health care professionals and those already in the field are prepared to meet the health care needs of racially and ethnically diverse populations. Ethn Dis. 2019;29(Supp 2):359-364. doi:10.18865/ed.29.S2.359

The Refugee and Immigrant Core Stressors Toolkit (RICST): Understanding the Multifaceted Needs of Refugee and Immigrant Youth and Families Through a Four Core Stressors Framework

“…Many existing resources for health professionals serving global migrant populations seek to build provider effectiveness through face-to-face trainings (traditionally held in person, but increasingly delivered virtually). These training programs are growing quickly and demonstrate improvements in both provider cultural competence and ethnic minority patient satisfaction with services (Govere & Govere, 2016;Lie et al, 2011;McGregor et al, 2019), but the evidence base for their efficacy remains sparse, as program evaluations often understandably lack control groups (Govere & Govere, 2016;McGregor et al, 2019).…”

Achieving Health Equity through Science, Policy, and Partnerships

“…The topics covered underscore the breadth and depth of health inequities across populations, including adults with developmental disabilities, [5][6] persons living with chronic illnesses, 6 racial/minority youth with mental health concerns, 7 and transgender medical patients. 8 The articles encourage readers to consider the multilevel changes required to achieve the desired goal of optimal health for all, such as cultural competence training for health care providers, 9 health policy training, [10][11] the use of consumer health informatics applications for disease self care, 12 stakeholder education 13 and organizational engagement. 14 In addition to research dissemination, this supplement is designed to serve as: 1) a resource to researchers seeking to advance the science of health equity; 2) an educational resource for those working in community-based and/ or grassroots settings; and 3) a transdisciplinary document demonstrating the importance of keeping the policy implications of health research in the foreground, from project conceptualization through the interpretation and dissemination of findings.…”

“…18 Articles in this issue describe multi-level training efforts to advance health equity. McGregor et al 9 applied theoretical approaches and an integrated care model to train behavioral health care providers in cultural competence to improve health equity. This has important and testable policy implications.…”

“…Graduate and professional training in policy within the context of health equity is also critical to prepare current and future professionals to create institutional change. Survey data from the Satcher Health Leadership Institute's Foreword -Webb Hooper post-doctoral health policy fellowship suggest positive effects on learner outcomes, career opportunities, 9 and resultant knowledge matched to the needs of professional environments. 10 This highlights the need to institutionalize high-quality mentoring programs to increase the pipeline of future researchers and professionals trained in health policy and health equity.…”

“…10 This highlights the need to institutionalize high-quality mentoring programs to increase the pipeline of future researchers and professionals trained in health policy and health equity. 9 Articles in this collection also focus on understudied populations for which health policies are needed deeply to advance health equity. ties, 5 HIV+ adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, 6 and medically underserved Korean American women.…”