READ CLAS Standards and Guidelines.doc

National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards and

Guidelines for Cultural and Linguistic Competence National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards

National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS)

The National CLAS Standards are intended to advance health equity, improve quality, and eliminate health care disparities by establishing a blueprint for health and health care organizations to:

Principal Standard:

1. Provide effective, equitable, understandable, and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, health literacy, and other communication needs.

Governance, Leadership, and Workforce:

2. Advance and sustain organizational governance and leadership that promotes CLAS and health equity through policy, practices, and allocated resources.

3. Recruit, promote, and support a culturally and linguistically diverse governance, leadership, and workforce that are responsive to the population in the service area.

4. Educate and train governance, leadership, and workforce in culturally and linguistically appropriate policies and practices on an ongoing basis.

Communication and Language Assistance:

5. Offer language assistance to individuals who have limited English proficiency and/or other communication needs, at no cost to them, to facilitate timely access to all health care and services.

6. Inform all individuals of the availability of language assistance services clearly and in their preferred language, verbally and in writing.

7. Ensure the competence of individuals providing language assistance, recognizing that the use of untrained individuals and/or minors as interpreters should be avoided.

8. Provide easy-to-understand print and multimedia materials and signage in the languages commonly used by the populations in the service area.

Engagement, Continuous Improvement, and Accountability:

9. Establish culturally and linguistically appropriate goals, policies, and management accountability, and infuse them throughout the organization’s planning and operations.

10. Conduct ongoing assessments of the organization’s CLAS-related activities and integrate CLAS-related measures into measurement and continuous quality improvement activities.

11. Collect and maintain accurate and reliable demographic data to monitor and evaluate the impact of CLAS on health equity and outcomes and to inform service delivery.

12. Conduct regular assessments of community health assets and needs and use the results to plan and implement services that respond to the cultural and linguistic diversity of populations in the service area.

13. Partner with the community to design, implement, and evaluate policies, practices, and services to ensure cultural and linguistic appropriateness.

14. Create conflict and grievance resolution processes that are culturally and linguistically appropriate to identify, prevent, and resolve conflicts or complaints.

15. Communicate the organization’s progress in implementing and sustaining CLAS to all stakeholders, constituents, and the general public.

Guidelines for Cultural and Linguistic Competence

The objective for establishing standards of care for cultural and linguistic competence is to ensure that clients receive services that are culturally and linguistically appropriate.

Culture is the integrated patterns of human behavior that include the language, thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, and values of individuals and groups, all which may be influenced by race, ethnicity, religion, class, age, gender, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, and other aspects of life upon which people construct their identities.

Cultural competence is a set of behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among individuals that enables effective delivery of services.

Linguistic competence is the ability to communicate effectively with people, including those whose preferred language is not the same as the provider’s, those who are illiterate or have low literacy skills, and/or those with disabilities. It is important to remember that cultural and linguistic competence is a goal toward which all providers must aspire, but one that may never be completely achieved given the diversity of languages and cultures throughout our communities. However, all providers should be involved in a continual process of learning, personal growth, experience, education, and training that increases cultural and linguistic competence and enhances the ability to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services to all individuals.

Culturally and linguistically appropriate services are services that:

· respect, relate, and respond to a client’s culture, in a non-judgmental, respectful, and supportive manner;

· are affirming and humane, and rely on staffing patterns that match the needs and reflect the culture and language of the communities being served;

· recognize the power differential that exists between the provider and the client and seek to create a more equal field of interaction; and

· consider each client as an individual, and do not make assumptions based on perceived or actual membership in any group or class.

As part of the on-going process of building cultural and linguistic competence, providers should strive to develop:

· a comfort with and appreciation of cultural and linguistic difference;

· interpersonal behaviors that demonstrate and convey concern and respect for all cultures;

· the comfort and ability to acknowledge the limits of personal cultural and linguistic competence and the skills to elicit, learn from, and respond constructively to relevant personal and cultural issues during service interactions; and

· a commitment to increasing personal knowledge about the impact of culture on health and specific knowledge about the communities being served.

On-going trainings that help build cultural and linguistic competence may include traditional cultural and linguistic competency trainings, as well as a range of trainings that help build specific skills and knowledge to work and communicate more effectively with the communities we serve.

Guidelines for Cultural and Linguistic Competence Standard

Measure

1.

Provide effective, equitable, understandable, and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, health literacy, and other communication needs.

1.1 Conduct self assessment to identify gaps and priorities.

1.2 Written CLAS implementation plan and policies.

2.

Advance and sustain organizational governance and leadership that promotes CLAS and health equity through policy, practices, and allocated resources.

2.1 Priorities, goals and activities identified based on self-assessment. Staff from all levels (management, administrations, support, etc.) designated to work on implementation.

2.2 Timelines for outcomes and measures for evaluation set. Results / progress reviewed on a regular basis and new priorities, goals and activities set periodically.

3.

Recruit, promote, and support a culturally and linguistically diverse governance, leadership, and workforce that are responsive to the population in the service area.

3.1 Based on demographic data from service area and clients served, policies and strategies for diversity recruitment, retention and promotion are put in place with the goal of ensuring that staff diversity reflects population in the service area.