More handpicked essays just for you.
The role of culture in mental health care
Research paper on racism in health care
Promoting anti-discriminatory practice in health care
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
To address the disparities in mental health agencies, Barksdale et al., (2014) wrote a paper that explores how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Health Care could be utilized by mental health agencies. The concern is that in some mental health agencies, there is a disconnected gap to understanding the cultural needs of the diverse population and it is causing a negative reflection in the agencies as well as in its providers. Furthermore, there is a lack of consideration and respect for clients’ cultural beliefs (Barksdale et al., 2014). With the incorporation of culturally and linguistically competent practices, increased client satisfaction, …show more content…
When looking at the language aspect of the CLAS approach, ensuring that if interpreters are brought into the practice, they are highly qualified and trained to help facilitate or provide appropriate services is necessary (Barksdale et al., 2014). To provide continuous improvements and accountability, agencies and other medical professionals can conduct self-report questionnaires and regular meetings to address any ongoing concerns with the progress of the approach. In addition, providing evaluation surveys to the clients in hope that they will give honest feedback to determine how to continue improving moving forward (Barksdale et al., 2014). While the National CLAS approach may have its limitations, the goal is to introduce it to many settings to lead to effective, understandable and respectful care and services that are responsive to the ethnic population’s health, beliefs and practices, and preferred languages (Barksdale et al., …show more content…
It was hypothesized that members of the ethnic population would have more negative perceptions of the mental healthcare treatment received than Whites. Data was collected through utilizing a self-report questionnaire. Interestingly enough, the results supported their hypothesis, in that, there was a significant difference in the satisfaction with mental health services in the past 6 months among African Americans, Hispanics and Whites (Cai & Robst, 2015). The researchers went so far as to suggest the need for medical professionals to put an effort in to help improve the perception of the ethnic population and help to deliver accurate and effective services. As well as, exposing the clinicians to cultural sensitivity education, which could improve the communication gap with their clients (Cai & Robst, 2015). The article mentioned above utilizing the CLAS standards approach could be a great resource for the study Cai and Robst, (2015)
The elimination of disparities in mental health care among ethnic, racial and underprivileged populations, specifically minorities remains a challenge amongst mental health care workers and medical professionals. Many minority areas are more impoverished, rely on government assistance and have a higher incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, chronic diseases, and injuries compare to any other ethnicity. In recent studies there are strategies to help eliminate disparities in mental health care, such as improving health care access, quality, offering diverse mental health workforce, providers, and patient education. These are just several strategies that can help assist in disparities. The goal is to reduce or eliminate racial, ethnic and socioeconomic health inequalities that affect minorities.
I know numerous East Africans and other minorities who fear and put off going to the hospital or clinic simply because they feel no one truly understands them on a more personal level and that their needs can’t and won’t be met entirely. According to the American Medical Association over 55% of health care providers agreed that, “minority patients generally receive lower quality health care” due to the lack of cultural competence. Those of different cultural backgrounds feel uneasy due to communication barriers and the lack of cultural competency amongst some health care providers. As a Somali-speaking nurse, I feel Somali patients, along with those of varying cultural backgrounds would be able to establish that sense of ease that’s needed when entering a health care facility or without having to feel the shame of having an interpreter hear about their personal health issues. According to Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence,
Definition: Mental health has become a pressing issue in Indigenous communities. Often, a combination of trauma, a lack of accessible health resources, substance abuse, violence, and socioeconomic situations lead to high rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidality in Indigenous Peoples. This crisis is especially apparent in Indigenous youth, where there is a growing suicide epidemic but little mental health support and resources are provided. The increase in stigmatized and untreated mental illness has continued as trauma and systemic injustices remain unaddressed. Indigenous groups, governmental parties, and health organizations are involved.
The increase and changing demography in the United State today, with the disparities in the health status of people from different cultural backgrounds has been a challenge for health care professionals to consider cultural diversity as a priority. It is impossible for nurses and other healthcare professionals to learn and understand theses diversity in culture, but using other approaches like an interpreter is very helpful for both nurses and patients. In this paper of a culturally appropriate care planning, I will be discussing on the Hispanic American culture because, I had come across a lot of them in my career as a nurse. The Hispanic are very diverse in terms of communication and communities and include countries like Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, South and Central America, and some of them speak and write English very well, some speaks but can’t write while some can’t communicate in English at all but Spanish.
The goal of this lesson is to explore how we can improve communication to eliminate language barriers between healthcare providers and patients in our organization and to establish culturally and linguistically appropriate goals, that provide safe, equal, and quality care to all our clients regardless of race, ethnic, or socioeconomic status. At the end of this lesson we should be
Goode, T. D., Dunne, M. C., & Bronheim, S. M. (2006). The evidence base for cultural and linguisitc competence in healthcare. The Commonweatlh Fund , 1-46.
The healthcare system within America reflects increasing numbers of cultural diversity and awareness. According to Holloway (2004), cultural awareness is defined as the deliberate, cognitive process by which health care providers become appreciative of and sensitive to the values, beliefs, practices, and problem solving strategies of the clients’ cultures. Cultural awareness include an examination of one’s personal biases. In order to understand cultural diversity, individuals must strive to acknowledge the prejudices they may already hold toward different cultures. On the other hand, cultural competence is a process through which health professionals can integrate their knowledge and skills to improve culturally effective interactions with clients (Tjale & Villiers, 2004).
According to Kramer (2002), Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the United States; growing from fewer than 1 million in 1960 to 7.2 million in 1990. But despite this ongoing rapid progression, Asian Americans have the lowest rate of utilization of any professional mental health related services than the general United States population (Tung 2011). To increase the utilization of mental health services among the Asian American community, the most hindering barriers that exist preventing Asian Americans in general from seeking out these services must be identified and explored. In spite of the fact that Asian Americans are viewed as the “model minority”, with high academic achievements and few mental/behavioral problems, studies
It is important to include cultural issues in the helping process to be more effective. We also need cultural competence because the U.S. is becoming more diverse. Therefore with diversity comes different beliefs, norms, and values. Eurocentric values dominate sciences and began cultural universals which puts the clash of dominate and non-dominate cultural behaviors in motion. In 1996 the NASW Code of Ethics increased the recognition of cultural competence. It is important to know diversity exist within ethnic and cultural groups because social workers need to know that relationships between helping professionals and clients may be strained. This happens because of the distrust between groups. Another important aspect is that the professional realizes their own values, biases, and beliefs. The reason for this is because they must value diversity to start with and understand the dynamics of difference. Culturally competent practitioners have to go through developmental process of using their own culture as a starting point to meet all behaviors. Striving for cultural competence is a long term process of development. The literature on cultural competence is theoretical and conceptual. They have not been evaluated in a systematic way. Roughly there are 2 million Native americans in the U.S. Which survive decimating disease, over-repressed in child welfare system, suffer from health problems, and are among the poorest people in the United States. Working with them clearly falls within the social work clearly mandate to serve vulnerable and oppressed clients. However, we do not know how many people from this group is actually receiving help from social workers. Even though it is important to train social workers to provide care in th...
The goal of CLAS is to advance the delivery of care to individuals in diverse communities. Ultimately by making health care services accessible to people of all cultures. The standards of CLAS are guidelines developed to reduce any misperception that would result in an undesirable experience between the health care professional and their clients’. Health care professionals will have to become more culturally competent and adhere to the CLAS guidelines so all cultures can receive optimum care.
Due to the persistent ethnic or racial healthcare disparities in the United States, the utilization and access to quality healthcare services are crucial to exploring distinctions in the perception of the patient’s healthcare quality across the ethnically diverse population. In this research, the role of race and acculturation in the perceptions of the patients of healthcare quality was critically analyzed to determine the role of race in the provision of quality health care (Pai & Chary,
The cultural competence training (CCT) can be a basic requirement for mental health professionals working with culturally diverse children in the school-based setting. The CCT implementation may improve the quality of school-based mental health intervention providing and its strategies for East Asian immigrant children. For providing the CCT strategy among school professionals, who directly implement mental health interventions among immigrant children, I think obtaining opinions is worth to understand its necessity and feasibility. So, I may listen opinions from collaborative team members that would be mental health professionals, community individuals, and family members who have various perspectives and knowledge.
...ulture is changing, Hmong are not all the same, importance of family, privacy issues, mental health issues, and small talk is important (Barrett et al., 1998, 181-182) . Overall, Barrett and others concluded that in order to improve interaction between patient and doctor all they have to do is follow these easy steps. First, is to be kind and have a positive attitude towards the patient and interpreter. Second, learn about each other’s cultures prior to meeting, to better understand each other. Third, better explain diagnosis and treatment options to patients. Fourth, improve translation providers need to get better interpreters who could concisely explain the consultation. Fifth, involve the family to make more thorough decisions. Sixth, respect patient’s decisions and there are still other alternatives to improve interaction (Barrett et al., 1998, 182-183).
Language Access is only a meaningful component of the overall quest to provide culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Palm Beach County. However, by providing Medical Interpretation training, Basic Language Skills classes, and support for interpretation and translation services to health and human service providers we get a little closer of closing the gap in health disparities and thus improving health outcomes.
Clients have their reservations when it comes to culture. Latinos, Caucasians, Hispanic and blacks have their own cultures. In addition there are certain personal cultural background that should always be observed in a relationship. It is always imperative for the clinical social worker to be aware of his own cultural experiences, attitudes, values background and biases that have the capability of influencing his ability to help clients from diverse cultural populations. It is vital that one should correct any prejudices that one may have regarding different cultural groups. Without the appropriate knowledge of the client’s background, the professional social worker can hurt feelings or create an initial impression to the client. Issues such as racism and discrimination have dominated the media and the public gallery. Most clients are always very sensitive of such issues and hence may feel offended if the professional social worker uses certain language. A client from a different background (black) may feel very offended if the clinical social worker uses certain language that sounds to abuse or degrade the black people. For instance, the black may feel offended if referred to as an African. It is always very imperative for the clinical worker to study and comprehend social, cultural economic differences of the client before involving in the counselling