Cultural Competency
Tulare County Mental Health strives to integrate culturally competent practices into service delivery approaches, programs, and in hiring practices. Cultural competence is normally defined as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes and policies that come together as a system, agency or among professionals and enable that system, agency or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. To that end, Mental Health offers yearly training on ethnicity, culture, disparities in access, poverty and treatment approaches to underrepresented populations. In this regard it is expected that trainings for administration, clerical staff, clinical and medical staff will improve the knowledge base of Mental Health and provide more effective clinical care to patients from a particular ethnic or racial group while also raising the level of awareness, knowledge and skills of what it means to be culturally competent.
Tulare County Mental Health collaborates with consumers, family members and community stakeholders through the Mental Health Cultural Competency Committee. This Committee meets monthly and assists the Department in problem identification and resolution while also identifying opportunities for development of staff and consumers in creating a more culturally competent system. Policy and procedure, strategic initiatives, proposed topics for trainings and the creation of the Cultural Competence Plan are some of the many issues that are reviewed by the Cultural Competence Committee. The Committee is open to mental health staff, consumers and family members and community stakeholders and actively recruits throughout the year.
For additional information, please contact:
5957 S. Mooney Blvd.
Visalia, CA 93277
(559) 737-4660