A Cultural Competency Training Model

Chapter 10 selects and distils the contents of this book to compile and organize professional resources for cultural competency training. The objective is to improve available training resources for services to existing resident racial/ethnic populations and for new populations of immigrants, refugees, and migrants as well as for a multicultural underclass and elite sojourners. These new at-risk populations, nationally and internationally, expose a vulnerable and human face of globalization. At present, multicultural populations constitute a critical mass of approximately 30% in the United States and in other countries. These residents are typically underserved or poorly served by available behavioral health resources designed for homogeneous majority populations. Moreover, these new populations have undetermined needs and require culturally competent behavioral health and social care services in their host countries.

Wherever multicultural populations are present, they must be served by conceptualization, research, and practice of a human science that endorses methodological pluralism and leads toward epistemological pluralism. Existing educational models are obligated to implement cultural competency training predicated on available research conducted in a number of different professions and academic disciplines. This training should coordinate and package professional resources within existing service delivery systems whenever feasible. In addition, the necessity for restructuring present systems of care should neither be minimized nor overlooked because education and practice domains are flexible systems amenable to rapid changes as a result of monitoring and evaluating their programmatic efforts.