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NMHA believes that it is essential that all aspects of mental health
systems be reflective of the diversity of the communities that they
serve and that mental health agencies strive to become and remain culturally
and linguistically competent. A culturally and linguistically competent
mental health system incorporates skills, attitudes, and policies to
ensure that it is effectively addressing the needs of consumers and
families with diverse values, beliefs, and sexual orientations, in
addition to backgrounds that vary by race, ethnicity, religion, and
language. This requires a thorough understanding of the culture and
language of substantial limited English-speaking communities and also
of the deaf, sexual minority and elder communities1.
NMHA urges that planning and advisory councils and governing boards,
staff and peer
service workers all be chosen and trained to reflect cultural and linguistic
diversity as a basic civil right 2.
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Postion Statement home
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Background
Unfortunately, many mental health systems and agencies, including those
that serve highly diverse populations, pay only lip service to these concepts,
despite the significant impact that cultural and linguistic competence has
on both positive outcomes and costs. In order to improve the cultural sensitivity
and responsiveness of mental health delivery systems, the NMHA urges all
organizations that provide mental health services to:
- Have a formalized, written cultural and linguistic competency
plan.
- Form planning and advisory councils and governing boards with
diverse and culturally and linguistically competent membership, reflective
of the communities being served.
- Provide enrollment and educational materials
in different languages and in Braille, consistent with the linguistic
diversity of the population
being served.
- Pre-test the reader-friendliness of enrollment and education
materials with focus groups comprised of persons who are reflective
of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the population.
- Measure
the reader-friendliness of such materials as an indicator in consumer
satisfaction surveys.
- Ensure availability of providers with language
skills that complement the languages spoken by the population being
served and provide
needed linguistic support and translation services, including sign language
services, to consumers
and families at no cost to them, beginning at the point
of entry
into the system and throughout the course of care.
- Develop and implement
standards for recruitment and hiring of culturally and linguistically
competent leadership and staff.
- Develop care plans that are compatible
with consumers' community environments.
- Direct consumers and their
families to treatment modalities that are culturally acceptable to
them to ensure the likelihood
of acceptance of and compliance with the treatment plan (including sensitivity
not only to
linguistic and cultural factors, but also to religious
beliefs and sexual orientation).
- Have a regular quality monitoring program
with indicators that separately evaluate both the quality of services
and outcomes
with respect to culturally diverse populations.
- Provide regular cultural and
linguistic competency training for leadership and providers.
- Ensure
that providers have an understanding of the cultural attitudes about
healing systems held by the consumers whom
they serve.
- Ensure that providers have an understanding of the family dynamics
of the consumers whom they serve.
- Ensure that providers are skilled
in specialized assessment and treatment techniques to serve consumers
with diverse
ethnicity or sexual orientations.
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This policy was approved by the NMHA Board of Directors on March
11, 2006. It will remain in effect for five (5) years and is
reviewed as required by the NMHA Public Policy Committee.
Expiration: March
11, 2011
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- Communities that have adopted a legal standard have often used a threshold
of five percent of the population served.
- Section 601 of Title VI
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000d, provides that no
person shall, "on the ground of race, color, or national origin,
be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected
to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial
assistance." See
also UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, "Guidance
to Federal Financial Assistance Recipients Regarding Title VI Prohibition
Against
National Origin Discrimination Affecting Limited English Proficient Persons" (2004).
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