Web Sites

DiversityRX

http://www.diversityrx.org
Promoting language and cultural competence to improve the quality of health care for minority, immigrant, and ethnically diverse communities is the mission of this site.

Office of Minority Health Resource Center

http://www.omhrc.gov/omhhome.htm
Under the direction of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health, OMH advises the Secretary and the Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS) on public health issues affecting American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, Blacks/African Americans, and Hispanics/Latinos. The mission of OMH is to improve the health of racial and ethnic populations through the development of effective health policies and programs that help to eliminate disparities in health.

Cross Cultural Healthcare Program

http://www.xculture.org/
The mission of the Cross Cultural Health Care Program is to serve as a bridge between communities and health care institutions to ensure full access to quality health care that is culturally and linguistically appropriate. This site provides training for health care and other management professionals in the skills of cultural competency.

National Alliance for Hispanic Health

http://www.hispanichealth.org/
A culturally relevant/competent website of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, the oldest and largest network of health and human service providers servicing over 10 million Hispanic consumers throughout the U.S.

National Center for Cultural Healing

http://www.culturalhealing.com
Cultural healing can reveal how a group can repair, re-new, and continually "make whole" its "mental map," identify and support "best practices," and reach planned results. The Center provides the tools and resources necessary to develop and sustain culturally competent organizations. Bibliographic references are included by topic.

Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture

http://www.cesla.med.ucla.edu/home.html
A resource sine 1992, the Center promotes Latinos in the healthcare industry and educates the public on Latino healthcare providers and recipients. The core research activities include: Latino Health Data Archive and Latino Medical Classics (translating colonial era documents on medicine).

Articles

Cultural Competence in Serving Children and Adolescents With Mental Health Problems
http://www.mentalhealth.org/publications/allpubs/CA-0015/default.asp
From the Center for Mental Health Services, this article addresses the need for culturally competent systems of care and describes what such systems should include.

Assuring Cultural Competence in Health Care: Developing National Standards and an Outcomes-Focused Research Agenda
http://www.diversityrx.org/HTML/RCPROJ.htm
Reports on the progress in the development of national standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) in health care.

Cultural Competence Works: Using Cultural Competence to Improve the Quality of Health Care for Diverse Populations and Add Value to Managed Care Arrangements
http://www.ask.hrsa.gov/detail.cfm?id=HRS00249
This publication, produced by the Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, shows that practicing cultural competence can help expand and improve access to quality health care.

Providing Care to Diverse Populations: State Strategies for Promoting Cultural Competency in Health Systems, A Workshop for Senior State Health Officials
http://www.ahrq.gov/news/ulp/ulpcultr.htm
A workshop overview with abstracts of sessions and references.

Print

Service Learning, NSSE
ISSN: 0077-5762, 1997
Chapter X. Encouraging Cultural Competence in Service Learning Practice, Janie Victoria Ward
Ms. Ward refers to personal experience as coordinator of the undergraduate Human Services Program at Simmons College in Boston when she writes about problems faced by undergraduates: "The assumptions held by students about those they help and the nature of the helping relationship are often the source of problematic practices in service learning." The author recommends that students and faculty who are working in culturally diverse communities to strive to contextualize their work, learning all they can about the communities and the individuals they serve.