CLAS Standards

The lack of mental health services available to the mentally-ill and the deinstitutionalization of mental health hospitals have created a public health concern. These issues along with a failed continuum of care plans and a lack of community mental health services have been major contributing factors to homelessness. In addition, the strict guidelines for psychiatric hospitalization are critical when analyzing homelessness. In many cases, only the critically ill are meeting clinical criteria for hospitalization, leaving those who have significant mental health problems to fend for themselves. The link between homelessness and mental health is acknowledged but requires reform.

Mental illness alone can be devastating to anyone who has it, but when it is also paired with being homeless, the results are catastrophic. “According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20 to 25% of the homeless population in the United States suffers from some form of severe mental illness. In comparison, only 6% of Americans are severely mentally ill” (“Mental Illness and Homelessness”). If the early symptoms of a mental illness are discovered quick enough, the effects can drastically be minimized and controlled through medication, therapy, and knowledge of the illness. Since most Americans are fortunate to already have this outlet of medical services readily available at their disposal, their mental illness

It is important for policy makers to create services that are culturally sensitive since the United States is a culturally diverse country; moreover, Healthcare professionals needs to be culturally competent so that they can guide policy makers in making sustainable systems for individual communities. “Efforts to improve cultural competence among health care professionals and organizations would contribute to improving the quality of health care for all consumers” (GeorgeTown Health Policy Institutes, 2004, para 31). Language barrier is another culture issue that prevents the community from getting the care that they deserve. “Cultural and language differences and socioeconomic status interact with and contribute to low health literacy, defined as the inability to understand or act on medical/therapeutic instructions” (Shaw, Huebner, Armin, Orzech, & Vivian, 2009, p.1). There should be health policy addressing this issue because of the confusion and inappropriate treatment that many

Cultural competency and sensitivity are essential factors to effective mental health treatment. ‘Cultural competency is defined as an ability to understand and be aware of cultural factors in the

Mental health in America is a stigmatized topic that affects nearly 20% of the population and around 1 in 4 people will be affected by a mental illness at some point in their life (World Health Organization, 2010). However, due to the stigma behind mental health, people often do not seek treatment. As for the homeless population, the rates are much higher, with 1 in 4 homeless individuals living with a severe mental illness (Jasinski, Wesely, Mustaine, & Wright, 2005). These people and this population struggles to receive adequate healthcare, but with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or better known as ObamaCare, there have been positive change made to help these individuals. However, the ACA is not perfect and there are

The National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care (the National CLAS Standards) is intended help eliminate health care disparities by providing an outline for health care organizations to implement culturally and linguistically appropriate services. Adoption of these Standards will help advance better health and health care in the United States. (Think Cultural Health) After observing Wright Patterson Medical Center in Fairborn, OH, one can be confident to say that this healthcare organization supports culture and is continuing to improve its cultural competence.

The DSM-5s' inclusion of the Cultural Formation Interview (CFI) has positive cultural care implications as it expanded cultural considerations and enabled greater provision of more individualised care by reducing racial and ethnic disparities in treatment (Halter, Rolin-Kenny, Dzurec, and Cox, 2013). “The CFI follows a person-centered approach to cultural assessment designed to avoid stereotyping, in that each individual’s cultural knowledge affects how he or she interprets illness experience and guides how he or she seeks help” (APA, 2013, p.

Underutilization and early termination of mental health services for Latinos in the U.S continues to be a concern for current research and practice in social work. A synthesis of current research demonstrates that there are several factors impacting access and utilization of mental health services for Latinos. According to U.S Department of Health and Human Services (2001), although Latinos are at increased vulnerability for developing mental illness, they continue to be half as likely in comparison to whites to access mental health services. Low rates of utilization of mental health services among the Latino community can be associated to a variety of factors including socioeconomic factors, cultural variables, stigma, psychotherapeutic challenges, client-therapist interaction (Kouyoumdjian, Zamboanga, & Hansen, 2003). Mental health conditions can significantly impact and individual’s ability to function and achieve their highest potential, consideration of these factors is essential in order to address the needs of a vulnerable population, and support Latinos in accessing mental health services when needed. This learning brief will focus on exploring how client system factors specific to Latinos’ resources, culture and worldview are associated with the underutilization of services for Latinos and important implications for practitioners when providing treatment.

How many people are homeless in the United States, why are they homeless, and what percentage of homeless people are negatively impacted by mental illness? These issues will be presented in this paper.

The black community has its own opinion about how effect mental heath services could be. The most apparent opinion is how African Americans feel that using mental health services is something that is stigmatized to be not useful. There’s been plenty of occasions by which African Americans don’t seek the guidance because of their assumptions on the effectiveness of these interventions. In order to understand this better, Cauce has a three step model that includes problem definition, the decision to seek help, and the selection of a treatment service or service provider. This is called the help seeking pathway because it helps us understand the culture and context of the process to seek help. This process could happen in any order because

In order to eliminate these disparities in care, we must first document the extent of disparities, recognize factors and processes that cause these inequities in care, and apply this knowledge to develop and implement evidence-based interventions aimed at eliminating these trends in care. Mental health services and policies aimed at achieving this important objective must be informed by research because research can provides some best available evidences, produce valuable information about the pathways, documents specific trends in care, and explains why and how these inequities occur. For example, researchers suggest that a complex interplay of structural, economic, psychiatric, and cultural factors influence Latinos’access to mental health

The problems of homelessness and mental illness are inextricably intertwined. One way that mental illness impacts people's lives is that it oftentimes renders them unable to carry out the functions of daily life, such as keeping a job, paying their bills, and managing a household. In addition to disrupting the events of daily life, mental illness "may also prevent people from forming and maintaining stable relationships or cause people to misinterpret others' guidance and react irrationally" (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009). What this means is that a population that is already vulnerable because of an inability to consistently manage self-care lacks the same safety net as much of the rest of society.

According to Guerrero (2012), in the past, there were federal and state campaigns that attempted to get mental health agencies to provide cultural competence in the delivery of their services. However, it was not until recently that initiatives have been made that require mental health organizations to provide evidence of the use of cultural competence in their services. Guerrero also states that the regulation of cultural competence standards was thought to have been poorly monitored prior to the 1990s, and that the regulation of CLAS standards did not begin until the 1990s. For example, the Joint Commission now requires the use of the CLAS standards in order to get professional accreditation (Guerrero, 2012). Also, educational institutions use CLAS standards to help with professional training in working with diverse populations. Professional associations, such as the American Psychological Association, have regulations that require cultural competence standards be practiced by many of the graduate programs. In addition, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act mandates that health care and mental health care organizations who receive

Access to mental health care is not as good as than other forms of medical services. Some Americans have reduced access to mental health care amenities because they are living in a countryside setting. Others cannot get to treatment for the reason of shortage of transportation or vast work and household tasks. In some areas, when a

Defined as the ability of providers and organizations to effectively deliver health care services that meet the social, cultural and linguistic needs (Georgetown University, 2004) Cultural competence is an ideal that spans across not only healthcare, but also law enforcement. Utilizing the same mindset as the healthcare industry, law enforcement has the dubious task of deciphering how to provide a service meant for all and ensure that the needs of all citizens and businesses are met. According to Terry Cross (1988), culturally competent agencies are characterized by acceptance and respect for difference, continuing self-assessment regarding culture, careful attention to the dynamics of difference, continuous expansion of cultural knowledge and resources, and a variety of adaptations to service models in order to better meet the needs of minority populations. The culturally competent agency works to hire unbiased employees, seeks advice and consultation from the minority community and actively decides what it is and is not capable of providing to minority clients.