Cultural competency is an issue that is becoming increasingly more important as thousands of people come to this country every year. Because of widely different social mores, living conditions, traditions, personal beliefs, and practices of clients, health professionals in all specialties are finding it difficult to communicate effectively with the members of the diverse racial and ethnic groups that come to them for help. To give health and human services professionals the necessary training, material on cultural competency has been mandated in several different curricula, yet appropriate pedagogical material remains relatively rare. This pioneering volume presents the latest information and techniques for improving cultural competency in the delivery of health, social, and human services to ethnic and racial minority groups in the United States. Special attention is paid to the importance of understanding the social and culture backgrounds of clients when assessing diagnosis of policy and economic issues, which are rarely examined in this context. Notable for its combination of theory and practice, which will be invaluable for both professionals and students, this book also includes material on cultural competency within such special populations as the mentally ill, the elderly, children, and families.

This book is distinguished by the anthropological or ethnographic approach to cross-cultural or multicultural social work practice. James Green is an anthropologist who brings a unique perspective to social work practice, moving well beyond cultural "sensitivity" to issues of professional practice. The book is based on an established model, that of "help-seeking behavior," that is also widely used in cross-cultural psychiatric and medical work. New topics addressed in this edition include the recent DSM-IV (with its first-time inclusion of a section on "cultural formations"); post-modernism in the social services, with its emphasis on narratives as a means of understanding cases; cultural competence and qualitative evaluation in agencies; new material on work with translators; and the emergence of biracial and bicultural consciousness in American popular culture. The chapters on major ethnic groups in America have been updated with current material from the social services literature. Anthropologists, social workers, therapists, and psychologists.

Cultural Competency for Health Administraion and Public Health is serves as an introductory text addressing comprehensive coverage specific to the fields of health services administration and public health. While cultural competency has become a popular topic in these fields, the general population, health service administration and public health students, health service administrators and public health practitioners are in need of a greater key information relevant to the topic and how to apply this knowledge in their area of study/work. This book provides readers with a clear and concise overview of the subject matter and the necessary tools to apply cultural competency processes in various healthcare settings, offering a systematic and disciplined approach to the process of achieving cultural competence. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images or content found in the physical edition.

This book documents the ways that clinical practitioners and trainees have used the “structural competency” framework to reduce inequalities in health. The essays describe on-the-ground ways that clinicians, educators, and activists craft structural interventions to enhance health outcomes, student learning, and community organizing around issues of social justice in health and healthcare. Each chapter of the book begins with a case study that illuminates a competency in reorienting clinical and public health practice toward community, institutional and policy level intervention based on alliances with social agencies, community organizations and policy makers. Written by authors who are trained in both clinical and social sciences, the chapters cover pedagogy in classrooms and clinics, community collaboration, innovative health promotion approaches in non-health sectors and in public policies, offering a view of effective care as structural intervention and a road map toward its implementation. Structural Competency in Mental Health and Medicine is a cutting-edge resource for psychiatrists, primary care physicians, addiction medicine specialists, emergency medicine specialists, nurses, social workers, public health practitioners, and other clinicians working toward equality in health.

This resource supports evidence-informed approaches to improving the cultural competence of health service delivery. By reviewing the evidence from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US, it provides readers with a clear and systematic overview of the interventions and indicators applied to enable health system agencies and professionals to work effectively in various cross-cultural health care situations. The book highlights the importance of cultural competence and describes the current situation in the studied countries; identifies effective approaches and strategies for improving the situation; reviews the indicators for measuring progress; assesses the health outcomes associated with cultural competence; summarizes the quality of the evidence; and presents an evidence-informed conceptual framework for cultural competence in health. Cultural competence is critical to reducing health disparities and has become a popular concept in these countries for improving access to high-quality, respectful and responsive health care. This book provides policy makers, health practitioners, researchers and students with a much needed summary of what works to improve health systems, services and practice.

Enables clinicians to provide culturally sensitive treatment.