Honing Cultural and Linguistic Competence

Innovations for Building Cultural and Linguistic Competence

This page features innovative programs and quality tools for improving cultural and linguistic competence as well as reducing health care disparities for vulnerable populations, including racial and ethnic minorities. For many health issues, from heart disease, to diabetes, to cancer, outcomes for ethnic and racial minorities continue to lag. AHRQ’s 2010 National Healthcare Disparities and Quality Reports demonstrate that health care quality for racial and ethnic minorities remains suboptimal.¹ Delivering culturally and linguistically appropriate care is an important way that health care providers can address these persistent gaps. Ultimately, doing so can move organizations toward providing high-quality care to vulnerable populations in a way that they can access and understand, leading to improved health outcomes.

The profiles and quality tools presented here provide a wide range of innovative models for advancing cultural and linguistic competence. Many of the programs address the principles and activities outlined in the National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services adopted by the Office of Minority Health. The page also includes perspectives from leaders in the field, definitions of related concepts, and links to additional resources.

Innovation Profiles

Hospital–Community Organization Partnership Uses Culturally Competent Community Health Workers To Support Latino Families With Asthmatic Children, Reducing Hospitalizations and Emergency Department Visits

Remote Interpretation Delivered via Simple and Inexpensive Videoconferencing Technology Generates High Satisfaction Among Patients and Clinicians at Outpatient Clinic

Verizon Encourages Health Plans to Identify and Address Disparities, Leading to Enhanced Access to Information and Services for Minorities

QualityTools

Cultural Competency in Mental Health Peer-Run Programs and Self-Help Groups: A Tool to Assess and Enhance Your Services

Diabetes Self-Management: Resource Toolkit for African Americans With Diabetes

Additional Featured Information

Spotlight on Asthma

Health Care Disparities: Health disparities are the persistent gaps between the health status of minorities and non-minorities in the United States.³ They are also increasingly understood to refer to differences that occur due to gender, education or income, living in rural areas, or sexual orientation, in addition to race and ethnicity.⁴ Health care disparities refer to differences in health care for different populations. Two important aspects that affect health outcomes are access to health care and the quality of health care.⁵

Health care disparities are influenced by factors such as lack of access to preventative care and/or quality medical care due to cultural/language barriers, low income, lack of insurance and geographic location among other factors. See examples of key health disparities by racial and ethnic group in comparison with White counterparts.

Resources

CLAS Standards: The National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) consist of 14 standards intended to define cultural and linguistic competence for health care organizations in a measurable and actionable way. The standards address three subject areas: culturally competent care, language access services, and organizational supports for cultural competence. Four of the standards are mandates, meaning that all recipients of Federal funds must adhere to them. Revised standards are expected to be released by the Office of Minority Health in 2011. The Joint Commission, National Quality Forum, and National Committee on Quality Assurance have also taken the lead in providing policies, standards, and guidelines on implementing culturally and linguistically appropriate care.

View the National Committee on Quality Assurance's Multicultural Health Care Standards (If you don't have the software to open this PDF, download free Adobe Acrobat Reader® software.)

Additional Resources

AHRQ. 2010 National Healthcare Disparities and Quality Reports. Available at: http://archive.ahrq.gov/research/findings/nhqrdr/nhqrdr10/qrdr10.html
The Office of Minority Health: http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/
Diversity Rx: http://www.diversityrx.org/
Advancing Health Equity: http://www.advancinghealthequity.org/

References

1. 2010 National Healthcare Disparities and Quality Reports. Available at: http://archive.ahrq.gov/research/findings/nhqrdr/nhqrdr10/qrdr10.html

2. AHRQ. “What is Cultural and Linguistic Competence.” Available at: http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/primary-care/cultural-competence-mco/cultcompdef.html

3. Office of Minority Health. “What are health disparities.” Available at: http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/npa/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=1&lvlid=5#1

4. Carter-Pokras O, Baquet C. What Is a “Health Disparity?” Public Health Reports Sept-Oct 2002; Vol 117: 426-434. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1497467/pdf/12500958.pdf

5. AHRQ. “What are health care disparities.” Available at: http://archive.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr03/nhdrsum03.htm#WhatAre

Featured Innovations

Community Health Workers Known as Promotores Enhance Access to Culturally Tailored Services for Elderly, Low-Income Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Leading to Improvements in Mental Health

Agency Enhances Access to Culturally Competent Home Care by Providing Trained Aides to Asian American Seniors With Limited English Proficiency

Featured Perspectives

Preventing and Mitigating the Effects of Childhood Violence and Trauma

Focusing on Priority Populations

Addressing Health Disparities

A Conversation on Cultural Competence With Cindy Brach, Senior Health Policy Researcher, AHRQ

Public- and Private-Sector Initiatives Are Reducing Health Disparities Among Children