A website about racial and ethnic minority populations

By Nickolas Kouravanas

Surfing on the internet I came across a very useful web site perfect for English speaking psychologists and counselors or other people who work in the mental health sector. The web site I have chosen to present you is the following: 

«https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/Default.aspx», which belongs to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health (OHM), which is dedicated to improving the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate health disparities.

Key strategies of the Office of Minority Health mission include:

• Developing and promoting policies, programs and practices to achieve health equity
• Funding demonstration programs at the regional, state and local level that can contribute to health policy and the effectiveness of strategies for improving health
• Improving data collection, reporting and sharing for ethnic and racial minority populations
• Fostering research and evaluation
• Establishing and strengthening networks, coalitions and partnerships to identify and solve health problems

One of the main goals is to raise awareness on efforts at reducing health care disparities and advancing health equity. It includes a set of initiatives and resources, covering minorities such as blacks, people who suffer from AIDS etc. It is also addressed to clinicians (pharmacists, physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and allied health professionals), health policy makers, researchers, health educators, public and community health leaders, and students whose work incorporates the use of multidisciplinary partnerships to build collaborations that eliminate health disparities and achieve health equity.

«OMH Announces Theme for National Minority Health Month 2020»

The April of 2020 was the National Minority Health Month, and this year, the HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH) is teaming up with the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP). Last year the theme was: Move Your Way campaign and partners to highlight the tremendous advantages gained from having an active lifestyle. For the second consecutive year, the theme for National Minority Health Month is Active & Healthy.

As mentioned in this action: «This year’s theme will provide OMH and minority health advocates around the nation the opportunity to advance health outcomes by highlighting the benefits of incorporating small amounts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity into our schedules as recommended by the 2nd edition of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Simple changes to one’s daily routine can transform lives and reduce the risk of chronic diseases and other conditions that often are more common or severe among racial and ethnic minority groups».

In addition, it is essential to underline that another OMH initiative is the new e – learning program for Behavioral Health Professionals, that is for free and it is designed to develop behavioral health providers' knowledge and skills related to culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS). It is in the part of the initiative “Think Cultural Health” which is a program of the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health that provides health and health care professionals with information, continuing education opportunities, resources, and more to learn about culturally and linguistically appropriate services, or CLAS. 

The National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care (The National CLAS Standards) aim to improve health care quality and advance health equity by establishing a framework for organizations to serve the nation's increasingly diverse communities. The key principle mentioned is the supply of 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. 

 

Only by understanding the cultural discrepancies, the health’s professionals can offer their help and the appropriate services, taking of course into account the cultural and also the linguistic characteristics. The communication plays an important role for the providing of the health care and also the understanding of the patient which is the key for the health providing. 

This website presents and highlights the importance of the cultural and linguistic competency for the health professionals. Psychologists and mental health experts need to have sufficient knowledge and skills about the different cultures and the differences among nations. In recent years, Greece has also become a multicultural society, in which racial and ethnic minorities coexist, with different languages, different religions and different cultures. In order to be able to provide adequate and high quality services it is important to know the differences that result from different cultures. Knowledge and sufficient information and awareness can ensure that each person is respected and understood on the basis of their cultural background. What we can keep from this site is the need for lifelong education through seminars and follow-up articles in scientific journals so that we can adapt to the social, economic, cultural changes that are taking place in society. Especially in the field of mental health how could we understand the other persons without knowing the linguistic and cultural characteristics they bring based on the country of their origin?