Contents
- Cover Story
Engaging Communities
Critical Resources
Engaging Communities
Speaking the Same Language
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, a professor of internal medicine and director of the Center for Reducing Health Disparities at the University of California, Davis, also knows the importance of effective communication.
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, a professor of internal medicine and director of the Center for Reducing Health Disparities at the University of California, Davis, is working with medical interpreters for the UC Davis Health System on a national initiative to help improve communication between health practitioners and patients from different ethnic backgrounds. Aguilar-Gaxiola co-chairs the CTSA consortium’s Community Engagement Steering Committee along with Lloyd Michener, director of the Duke Center for Community Research at Duke University Medical Center. Photo by Bill Santos, University of California, Davis.
A growing amount of research has found that differences in language and culture, even small ones, could be one of the reasons for the nation’s persistent health care disparities. As a result, Aguilar-Gaxiola is implementing a new training effort at UC Davis’ Sacramento campus that will incorporate the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards, a set of guidelines published in 2000 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health. (For more information, visit www.omhrc.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=15.)
In addition, Aguilar-Gaxiola is leading a national program to improve the way in which hospital staff communicate with non-English-speaking patients. The program, called Speaking Together: National Language Services Network, was launched in fall 2006 with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and involves the UC Davis Health System and nine other collaborating institutions. “We are addressing the importance of language services,” says Aguilar-Gaxiola. “For a system whose patients sometimes have limited resources, communication plays a critical role in health care.”
The UC Davis Health System serves a diverse population in Sacramento and from counties throughout the Northern California region. “The more I work with our community, I realize there is an incredible disconnect between what researchers are doing and what is being provided to the community,” says Aguilar-Gaxiola, whose research interests are in the area of mental health. “For example, in the last decade we have learned a lot about the risks and protective factors for mental disorders, but the rates of these disorders are still significantly high.” Many people are simply not aware of what mental disorders are or how to seek treatment.
As a first step in increasing participation of underserved communities in health care, Aguilar-Gaxiola and colleagues are partnering with community-based organizations, providers, and public agencies to understand needs and concerns of diverse groups and populations. He recently completed a nine-month project funded by the California Department of Mental Health to gather information about the kinds of problems residents see in their communities and the types of services that might help prevent these problems. The report resulting from this effort will help both the agency and the counties around the state to plan programs and improve their mental health services.
These examples are just a few of the projects working toward one ultimate goal: “to develop evidence that it is possible to reduce certain disparities in health care and improve the quality of care to all populations,” says Aguilar-Gaxiola. “I believe that it is possible to do that. We need to recognize and act upon the idea and common understanding that the ultimate beneficiaries of our health research are the very communities that need it the most.”
