Providing Care to Diverse Populations

Making Change Happen

Leadership Opportunities for States in Promoting Cultural Competency in Health Care Delivery

This session examined ways in which State officials can provide leadership in promoting culturally competent health care to diverse populations within their own States. Dr. King Davis, the William and Camille Cosby Professor at the Howard University Department of Social Work, presented this final session.

Dr. Davis designed this summary session to be a prelude to the future steps that can be taken with the information that was presented throughout the workshop. He moved that the issues with which the participants were contending within the workshop were far more substantive than just cultural competence, suggesting that these issues actually encompassed many difficult factors, including:

• The belief in the status quo and fear of change.
• The difficulty in the political process.
• Pervasive, intrinsic, and unresolved issues about race, class, and gender.
• Health dollars and available resources.
• Values, trust, and risk.

Dr. Davis introduced three overarching themes and challenged participants to use these themes as tools for promoting cultural-competence programs within State governments.

• Intersections: The place where new opportunities become available and new ideas can be encountered.
• Market place: In order to be successful in selling new ideas you have to know the marketplace and craft services and products to meet the needs of the marketplace.
• Leadership: The ability to create a vision for the future and have an impact on change.

Current as of June 1999

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Internet Citation:

Providing Care to Diverse Populations: State Strategies for Promoting Cultural Competency in Health Systems. Workshop Summary, June 9-11, 1999. User Liaison Program, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/ulp/ulpcultr.htm