Using Health Navigators to Ensure Culturally Responsive Care Coordination

Physical health and behavioral health care services, as well as social services and supports, are often fragmented and difficult to navigate, particularly for clients, and their families, with co-occurring physical and behavioral health conditions. This fragmentation of the healthcare delivery system results in lack of access to and diminished quality of care. Further, limited access to culturally and linguistically relevant services can exacerbate a client’s sense of frustration with and ability to engage in effective care.

In a year-long project, the California Institute for Behavioral Health Solutions worked with a multi-agency collaborative partnership to test and implement strategies for using Community Health Navigators (Navigators) to enhance coordination of services and supports for individuals with chronic health conditions complicated by co-occurring mental health conditions. Culturally relevant Navigators are effective partners in the health care delivery system. Navigators improve access to services and supports for racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse populations by creating a necessary bridge to improve communication between clients, their families, community supports, and physical and behavioral health care providers. Navigators also have the appropriate expertise and capacity to help address the social determinants of health, provide physical and behavioral health prevention and promotion services, and linkages to self-management support programs in a culturally and linguistically responsive manner.

This session will explore strategies for integrating Community Health Navigators into the health care delivery system to improve care coordination, health outcomes, and the experience of care for under-served culturally and linguistically diverse populations with behavioral and physical health concerns.