Project Summary
Background: With an increasingly diverse society and persistent health disparities, a pressing question is: How can we reimagine healthcare practices to better account for culturally diverse patient populations?
Proposed Solution to the Problem: Engage diverse patient groups in developing an understanding of what culturally responsive health care is and how to enhance the healthcare system. This will inform the development of resources for diverse patient groups, healthcare professionals, and other stakeholders committed to creating more equitable health care. Engagement of patients will occur in community settings in Honolulu, Hawaii, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and the Twin Cities Metro Area in Minnesota.
Objectives: The project aims to ensure culturally responsive health care for increasingly diverse patient populations. To this end, the objectives are:
- Gain an understanding of patients’ visions of culturally responsive care and their experiences with the healthcare system
- Develop guidelines for engagement of diverse patients in health care
- Disseminate guidelines for culturally responsive care to diverse stakeholder groups
- Create pilot training materials for healthcare professionals on the integration of culturally responsive guidelines into their practice
Activities: To develop culturally responsive healthcare guidelines, two listening sessions will occur for each patient group affiliated with the involved community organizations. This will include a total of eight groups: two with African-American patients, two with Hmong patients, two with Latino patients, and two with Native Hawaiian patients. Additionally, one community forum per patient group will be held to further refine the guidelines developed as a result of the listening sessions.
Outcomes and Outputs: The aim of the project is to contribute to the improvement of healthcare experiences and outcomes. The outcomes are:
- Increase the engagement of diverse patient groups in determining guidelines for culturally responsive health care
- Raise awareness of culturally responsive health care and bring about change in behaviors of both patients and healthcare professionals
- Increase support for community-academic partnerships seeking protocols to guide their partnership processes
The first two outcomes address the need to understand what culturally responsive health care means, and how to ensure the knowledge gained positively impacts the healthcare experience. This will result in guidelines for culturally responsive health care, training materials, and other products. The final outcome, a refined partnership protocol, is intended to support other community-academic partnerships.
Patient and Stakeholder Engagement Plan: The project team is comprised of representatives from Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, three community-based organizations, and University of New England. The involved community-based organizations have long-standing connections to their respective diverse communities and are uniquely positioned to codevelop the proposal and ensure efforts are fully implemented, from the development through the dissemination of partnership products. They will take the lead on organizing the listening sessions and community forums with the different patient communities they serve. The partnership will convene monthly via conference calls and in person in Year 1.
Project Collaborators: Ahahui Malama I Ka Lokahi, Project Momentum, SoLaHmo Partnership for Health and Wellness