As evidenced from this quote, some participants’ recognition of the importance of rapport did not mean they sought to equalise their relationship with their patients, preferring instead to maintain a directive approach. Conversely, many practitioners from non-Anglo-Australian backgrounds felt that having an ‘ethnic’ background and speaking a second language made them more familiar and approachable to their patients. Many female participants spoke about male patients feeling uncomfortable speaking with them or having misogynistic views that made it difficult for the patient to take their advice. Cultural competence is exploring the significance say of their religion, of their ethnic group, exploring their life experiences growing up in their particular culture and their explanatory model of why they might be unwell and responding to the information they give you without preconception.
pecific Populations
- The competemility position allows a meaningful connection with each patient as a unique individual, with diverse perspectives, culture, and lifestyles.
- This might involve, for example, promoting mental health literacy, challenging harmful gender norms, and providing gender-specific mental health services.
- Future qualitative research could explore whether our findings on cultural competence converge or diverge from findings in other clinics.
- • Conduct comprehensive clinical intakes and psychosocial assessments
- These include language barriers, socioeconomic challenges, cultural stigma, and lack of access to culturally competent care.
Healthcare professionals should use community assessments to understand the social and linguistic characteristics of the populations they serve, which is essential for delivering effective and equitable care. Are there cultural practices they have already tried – and what was the result? Ask directly about experiences of discrimination, bullying, traumas or harassment. Understand the person’s family and relationships to help clarify family dynamics, cultural background and possible generational trauma. Make sure people feel welcome and can communicate – ensure everyone is made to feel equally welcomed to the ward and that interpreter services are available, if needed.
Cultural barriers preventing effective mental health treatment:
Consequently, trainees rate their training in these areas as highly satisfactory. CC training in USA has traditionally focused on awareness of racial biases, knowledge pertaining to various racial/ethnic groups and skills in working with persons of color. Willen (2013) identified this limitation as well for US psychiatry residents through the “paradigm of ‘mainstream’ clinician vs. ‘other’ patient” (p. 249) that misses the heterogeneity among the residents being trained. A major challenge with CC training identified was that the training was geared toward a white, straight, cisgender male clinician working with clients with minoritized identities and related issues of monolithic portrayals of various groups. In comparison, two decades later, over 80% of US students responding to our survey indicated infusion across curriculum, demonstrating that CC is being integrated more in health service psychology curricula.
Cultural humility focuses on identifying one’s own implicit biases, self-understanding, and interpersonal sensitivity and cultivating an appreciation for the multifaceted components of each individual (culture, gender, sexual identity, race and ethnicity, religion, lifestyle, etc.), which promotes patient-centered approaches to treatment. The competemility position allows a meaningful connection with each patient as a unique individual, with diverse perspectives, culture, and lifestyles. Cultural competence is characterized as a skill that can be taught, trained, and achieved and is often described as a necessary and sufficient condition for working effectively with diverse patients. To deliver individualized, patient-centered care, a provider must consider patients’ diversity of lifestyles, experience, and perspectives to collaborate in joint decision making. The IOM’s Crossing the Quality Chasm (5) document defines patient-centered Psychiatric Services research article care as “providing care that is respectful of, and responsive to, individual patient preferences, needs, and values, and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions” (p. 3).
All participants were intrinsically motivated to work with immigrant patients and most felt a connection and empathised with immigrant patients. Personal motivators and professional resilience were the cornerstones to developing and sustaining cultural competency. One rural practitioner felt that some of her colleagues were in denial about existing health disparities in immigrant communities and saw specialised services as a ‘privilege’ rather than a way to promote health equity and access.
