Cultural and linguistic competence organizational self-assessment: A tool to enhance Fetal Infant Mortality Review programs' impact on health inequities in fetal and infant mortality

Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) is a community-owned, action-oriented process that results in improved service systems and resources for women, infants and families. The FIMR process brings a community team together to examine confidential, de-identified cases of infant deaths to understand how a wide array of local social, economic, public health, educational, environmental and safety issues relate to infant loss. From the case reviews, a broad forum of interested community members-leaders, elected officials, providers, agencies, advocates and consumers-are work together to improve services and resources. Persistent racial and ethnic disparities in fetal and infant mortality are a key focus for FIMR programs. Cultural and linguistic competence of FIMR organizations supports their ability to identify and address, at the community level, the range of factors that contribute to these disparate outcomes. As part of the FIMR model's self-examination to improve effectiveness, cultural and linguistic competence organizational self-assessment can enhance the quality of data gathering, success in completing maternal interviews, equity in case reviews and effectiveness of community engagement to take action. The National Center for Cultural Competence and the National FIMR Resource Center partnered to create an organizational cultural and linguistic competence self-assessment tool that addresses the unique functions of FIMRs. The tool, which has been field reviewed, helps FIMRs identify strengths and areas for growth to improve their effectiveness in addressing health inequities in fetal and infant mortality. The tool, the organizational self-assessment process and experiences of FIMR teams with the process will be discussed.