Poster Presentations (Group I)

This session will present the results of a three-year project of Family Planning Advocates of New York State (FPA) to help family planning providers assess and enhance their ability to offer culturally and linguistically competent services. FPA works to build the capacity of family planning organizations to address issues of cultural and linguistic competence and to strengthen the linkages between immigrant women’s organizations and family planning providers to identify needs and develop effective strategies to address them.
As part of this initiative, FPA developed an organizational assessment process that assists family planning providers in gaining a clear picture of their organization’s cultural and linguistic competencies and enables them to develop practical strategies to strengthen their capacity to meet the needs of culturally diverse populations. Using the framework outlined in the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Healthcare (CLAS), a comprehensive yet user-friendly assessment methodology was developed to evaluate the degree to which the CLAS standards are being effectively implemented at the organizational level. Cultural competency assessments were carried out at seven clinic sites through onsite visits, surveys, interviews with key staff members and review of relevant documents and census data. Each clinic received a report highlighting the strengths and areas for growth regarding their cultural and linguistic competency. Mini-grants were provided to the clinics to address at least one of the organizational priorities derived from the assessment. Technical assistance and organizational support was provided to the clinics during the process. In order to expand access to the assessment process in a way that was replicable and sustainable, the second phase of this project used a ‘train the trainer’ approach to build capacity among family planning providers to carry out the assessments themselves.

Although long-term results are yet to be measured, participating centers have used the assessment results to guide them systematically towards implementing the CLAS standards. Some clinics used the grants for cultural competency training for staff, recruitment of diverse staff and/or outreach to new immigrant communities. All the clinics have reviewed their language access policies and practice and have implemented new language services. Some have trained bi-lingual staff as medical interpreters while others have contracted with telephonic interpreting services to provide free interpreter services in dozens of languages (several have done both). All of the assessment sites have chosen to spend some of their funding on multi-lingual signage and document translation. Additional activities funded by the mini-grants include: working with local artists to decorate clinic waiting rooms to make them more welcoming; hosting regular information sessions in which bilingual staff and interpreters explain the services available to limited English proficient clients; recording primary phone messages in key patient languages; and cultural competency trainings for staff on issues related to reproductive health care services with an emphasis on the ethnic and racial communities that live within the clinic area.

Samples of the assessment tools will be offered and discussed. Lessons learned and critical points for family planning providers interested in replicating this approach will be shared.