Mercy Behavioral Health Service Coordination Unit (MBH-SCU)

I believe cultural difference between service providers and immigrant families is a major barrier; therefore, there should be more diversity of staff in government organizations and more opportunities for cultural training of health care providers to deliver more culturally-sensitive health services to immigrant women that are congruent to their own traditional beliefs. This could help to reduce language barriers and prevent further racist treatment for immigrant women. One limitation of this study is the small number of visible-minority immigrants in Halifax.

Healthcare managers are responsible for ensuring that their organization has a plan or strategy that is geared toward eradicating health inequality through cultural competency. Best practices are of utmost importance in assuring cultural proficiency. Buchbinder and Shanks (2012) outlined these practices in their textbook Introduction to Healthcare Management: a diverse workforce, leadership and organizational culture that fosters cultural competence as well as human resource policies which do the same, appropriate training/education for all employees, linguistic services and materials, systems capable of tracking data with regards to health outcomes, and responding to and engaging the community (p. 321). Additionally, a Commonwealth Fund study provided a list of actions that diversity leadership should adhere to in accordance with the National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards. Aside from employing a culturally diverse staff and patient services and regular re-evaluations of goals, healthcare leaders engage and report their progress to diversity goals the community (Dreachslin, 2008). Inasmuch as cultures change and evolve, it is suggested that cultural competence training be an ongoing process and that organizational policy and strategic plans be reassessed periodically for effectiveness (Buchbinder & Shanks, 2012). Time, revenue, and energy spent in interventions that do not bring the desired results is not

Culturally competent care can best be understood by considering the recommendations of McGoldrick who said that culture and subculture has a history and background of experience that affects the product of that culture far more than it may realize. Family therapy generally focuses on the patterns and thought behavior of the different members within that family construct, but McGoldrick took a step backwards and said that ethnicity defined family behavior and that, to understand individual and family, one first had to understand and dialogue with that specific culture (McGoldrick, M., Pearce, J. and Giordano, 1982).

Due to the changing demographics of our society, hospitals and health systems need to be more diverse. Employees need to be hired that match the ethnic make-up of those they serve. Training for employees to be able understand others beliefs and values will support the patient-provider relationship. Finally, by promoting diversity within the health system, potential patients will be drawn into the system for care when historically they shied away from major institutions. By making culturally proficient care and treatment a priority, healthcare organizations will decrease “the gap in health status between minorities and other majority groups, patient-provider communication barriers, poor health outcomes for minorities and the presence of biases and prejudices among some health professionals” (Hart & Mareno 2013, p. 2223). This paper, will examine Hospital Corporation of America’s (HCA) website diversity.

1. Before you contact an agency, do some research Is the agency a registered non-profit organization? Are they supported by other larger organizations (e.g., church, United Way, state or federal agency)? What else do you know about the agency’s location, hours, clientele, funding support, etc.? Do they have a web site, social media, or other sources of information?

Maintaining an organization with industry-leading levels of diversity and inclusion is critical to fulfilling our mission, sustaining our business objectives, and providing the highest quality, affordable, and culturally competent care to our members and patients and the communities we serve.” ("Kaiser Permanente",

An additional barrier to multicultural counseling is client access to care. The utilization of mental health services by minority groups is low in the United States (Smith, Domenech Rodriguez, Guillermo, 2011). The fact that minority groups underutilize mental health services is attributed to systemic issues such as lack of affordable transportation, inconvenient office hours, demographic mismatch, language barriers, economics, and lack of clinics in neighborhoods with predominately ethnic minority groups (Smith, Domenech Rodriguez, Guillermo, 2011). To address these issues, multiculturalism in the mental health services field has committed to equipping more culturally competent counselors, encouraging community-based counseling efforts for easier access, increasing bilingual and culturally diverse counselors, as well social advocacy. Despite their recognition, these challenges are difficult to remedy and remain a problem for clients of minority groups.

A multicultural competent counselor refers to, someone who’s able to work efficiently with groups of students from culturally distinct groups (Thomas & Vines, 2008). Furthermore, culture competency plays a key role in how counselors diagnose and treat their patients from any background or culture. Surgeon General (2001) largely defines culture as a common heritage or set beliefs, norms and values. Culture can be applied to all groups of people but unfortunately; there are major mental health disparities amongst minority individuals compared to white individuals. According to the Surgeon General (2001), ethnic minorities have less access to mental health services than their white counterparts. Additionally, minorities

Otten, S., van, . Z. K., & Brewer, M. B. (2014). Towards Inclusive Organizations: Determinants of successful diversity management at work. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

I want to work towards increasing diversity in the MCH workforce to help reduce health disparities among some of the most vulnerable communities in the United States. As a woman of color, my experiences with diversity began at a young age because I grew up in an affluent suburb with little to no ethnic diversity. However, as I came to college, I have realized that while ethnic diversity is a type of diversity, the actual definition of diversity can refer to socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and gender, among other things. I believe that a commitment to diversity, in the purest sense, means being determined to accept and embrace differences, as opposed to criticizing and judging them. This is the main reason why promoting health equity is more important to me than promoting health equality.

Sutter Health believes a culturally diverse and inclusive workforce enhances our ability to provide high quality care to patients and their families. Sutter Health believes in diversity recruitment and retention by seeking and welcoming employees who bring diverse backgrounds and perspectives that reflect all the communities that they serve. I myself being a volunteer at the Sutter Health Valley Area administration office, I got a chance to ask questions to my supervisor Laughlin-Guerra M. who is the senior executive assistant to James Conforti president/CEO of Sutter Health valley area and Grant Davies CEO of valley area Hospitals. I

in this blog assignment I chose to discuss counseling immigrants and the barriers they face for seeking treatment. There are four different barriers they face discussed on pages 463 and 464. The barriers are: communication difficulties due to language differences lack of knowledge of mainstream service delivery, cultural factors, and lack of resources. (Sue & Sue, 2013) These barriers take place within social and mental health care services for immigrants. (Sue & Sue, 2013) language with immigrants is a main barrier immigrants face with getting services. Another situation is that they lack information pertaining to health care services and how it operates within the United States. Also, immigrants lack in transportation to go seek help for

Different colors, different faces, diverse cultures and traditions seen in one place- Los Angeles is indeed a “melting pot”. Given this remarkable cultural diversity, issues of unfair treatment still arise. The aim of this journal is to reflect on my experience at the Museum of Tolerance, identify a personal experience where I witnessed unfair treatment of another person, describe the significance of ethics in public health, talk about the relevance of social justice in public health, examine the impact of racism in healthcare, and what can I do as a nurse to stop unfair treatments from happening in healthcare.

Discrimination in healthcare is an ethical issue that is seen but is not primarily discussed, and is over looked. Discrimination is defined as “making a difference in treatment or favor on a class or categorical basis while disregarding individual merit, also acting on basis of prejudice and the denial of equal opportunity” ( Dienemann, 1997). Working in healthcare for 20+ years, I have experienced and witnessed discrimination among healthcare workers and as well clients. The behaviors and attitudes towards clients from other ethnic groups by nurses and clinicians is increasing in the health care system but it is not being addressed. Is it fair that clients be judged by their ethnicity and not receive the best

Diversity is a part of every day life in many countries in the developed world. People from all sorts of different cultures and backgrounds place values and norms in the community or workforce circumstance. Moreover, diversity is about embracing all of the members to share their own and unique experiences with their different ways of thinking to build the happy and community that leads to better service. This assignment will discuss about the challenges of diversity based on my own experience in delivering healthcare services that happens in my home country, Indonesia.