Cultural adaptation for ethnic minorities

The potency of substance abuse prevention among ethnic minorities has been limited and most often can be improved by enhancing the comprehensiveness and cultural sensitivity of the intervention approach. Regardless of the mode of intervention, priority should be given to adaptation on a cultural level involving modifications for language, cultural context of living with discrimination, gender role differences, religion, and the effects of minority status. The AIDS Prevention Program has implemented these modifications with recovering drug abusers, severely mentally ill, as well as Latina women and HIV+ individuals living in Trinidad, among others. For example, reliance on written handouts and written homework assignments has been reduced and references to family and spirituality, which have been shown to be important in these populations, have been increased. Cultural adaptation committees have done extensive work in back translation to guarantee that the connotations of language match our intent. These efforts at cultural awareness may improve recruitment as well as enhance the sensitivity of assessment items, providing us with more accurate information about participants. Our intent is to streamline and further refine the process of cultural adaptation in order to better serve and to be more effective in reducing drug use among ethnic minorities. A neglected area that we are currently addressing is intercultural adaptation: skills-building of the target population to negotiate the helping and resource cultures that can sustain their recovery and risk reduction efforts.