Oral

Linguistic and cultural competence in the health professions leads to improved communication between providers and clients who may be from different ethnic, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. This session will address innovative programs to improve cultural competence of health providers in settings as varied as Bangladesh and California. In Bangladesh, one of the limitations found in providing services for adolescents in rural areas and slums was the unavailability of learning materials for non- literate adolescents. Introduction of photograph-based IEC materials for youth proved an effective strategy to bridge linguistic gaps. In order to better equip health providers with skills to communicate with the diverse ethnic groups in California, a “Linguistic and Cultural Competency Toolkit” was developed by the center for health training. The presentation will explain the four areas of cultural competency and the potential impact of the Toolkit. The third panelist will present results from a study conducted in India and Ecuador using cognitive interviews to simplify the screening protocol for the Standard Days Method, a fertility awareness-based family planning method. The final presentation will describe one of the first cultural competency training programs tested in a developing country setting. Results from Bolivia will be presented

Session Objectives: 1) Assess the importance of developing culturally appropriate educational materials for non-literate adolescents. 2) Discuss the development process for the Family PACT Linguistic and Cultural Competency Toolkit 3) Describe the simplification process for the SDM screening protocol 4) Describe how training in cultural competence can improve poor communication and mistrust between providers and clients