Lessons From Canadian Judgments: The Consideration of Culture in Intimate Partner Violence Legal Cases Involving Asian Canadians.

Despite the pervasiveness of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Canada, research examining IPV in the context of Asian Canadians is scarce. Our study examined whether and how Canadian judges consider culture when determining a sentence in IPV cases involving an Asian offender and/or an Asian victim. We systematically searched for publicly published cases through CanLII. A total of 50 cases met the inclusion criteria. Cultural themes were identified using a direct content analysis approach to capture a priori themes in the literature, as well as identify any other factors considered. Our findings indicated culture was most often considered in only a superficial way (n = 31, 62.0%), where judges only made statements that simply identified the ethnicity of the offender and not how culture may have impacted the case. When examining cases where culture was meaningfully considered there were no prominent culture themes identified (all themes present in <14% of cases). We suggest this may not only reflect the heterogeneity of Asian Canadians, but could also reflect the lack of cultural consideration by the judges. Cultural factors were also rarely considered explicitly as an aggravating or mitigating factor in a case (n = 2; 4.0% and n = 7; 14.0% of the total sample, respectively). The findings reveal the current lack of meaningful consideration of culture in IPV legal cases involving Asian Canadians. We outline how this contrasts the increased attention to the meaningful consideration of culture in the Canadian legal arena and prompt all professionals involved in assessing and managing IPV risk to consider racial, ethnic, and cultural factors in these cases.

Metodología de diálogos interculturales / Methodology of intercultural dialogues

Contiene un marco legal sobre la salud de los pueblos indígenas. El objetivo del documento es el de "Propiciar un espacio de encuentro y consenso entre las percepciones y expectativas de terapeutas tradicionales y prestadores de salud institucional, basado en la generación de la auto-identidad y el respeto a las diferencias." Señala además que, "La atención primaria en salud requiere de establecimientos adecuados y personal sensibilizado para prestar sus servicios con pertinencia cultural, la cual, es un enfoque de intervención que busca que la atención sanitaria sea conceptualizada, organizada e implementada tomando como referentes los valores de la cosmovisión de los pueblos indígenas." Enfatizando ser una estrategia institucional, agrega que: "El Departamento de Promoción y Educación en Salud de la DGSIAS propone esta metodología para la realización de diálogos interculturales que tiene como objetivo principal generar un proceso estratégico para la adecuación de los servicios de salud y la sensibilización del personal hacia una atención con pertinencia cultural." Hace referencia al documento: "Normas con pertinencia cultural: hacia la interculturalidad", que también puede encontrarse en eBlueInfo En el marco conceptual, aborda términos relacionados, y específicamente enumera los nombres (en lengua) y sus "especialidades" en la medicina tradicional. "Esta metodología fue construida con acompañamiento de la Unidad de Atención en Salud para Pueblos Indígenas e Interculturalidad (UASPIIG) y validada en campo entre los años 2014 y 2015 como ejercicio de diálogos entre comadronas y proveedores de servicios de salud del MSPAS, en la plataforma de intervención del Proyecto Mesoamérica 2015." Incluye además, talleres de concientización intercultural, tanto para "terapeutas tradicionales", como para el personal médico.

The Chemical Sciences and Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion.

There has been mounting concern over the absence of gender equality in the sciences in recent years. This has been accompanied by a broadening of the perspective, in order to address issues of equality, diversity and inclusion, relating to a wide range of circumstances in which individuals suffer discrimination. While some progress has been made in some countries, nationally or at the level of institutions, much more needs to be done. The chemical sciences can play a leading role in addressing biases, through 1) becoming a model of good systemic practice in policies, processes, and actions; 2) developing practical skills through training in cultural competence; and 3) promoting a stronger evidence base to uncover both the extent of problems and the degree to which approaches to improve equality, diversity, and inclusion are working.

Cultural considerations in forensic psychiatry: The issue of forced medication.

There has been an ongoing debate regarding the forced use of antipsychotic medications and both the psychiatric and legal professions have reacted strongly to the growing debate. Within the penological context, cases such as Washington v. Harper, Riggins v. Nevada, and Sell v. United States established the framework for determining when antipsychotic medication may be forcibly administered. Medication decisions under the Sell and Riggins cases are to be approved at judicial hearings; whereas, administrative hearings are sufficient for Harper cases. Forensic psychiatrists are also given responsibility in making the legal decision of whether or not to forcibly treat a patient with psychotropic medication against his will. In making this critical decision, a significant factor that is often minimized is the cultural background of the patient. The purpose of this paper is to present cultural factors to be considered in forced medication. Focusing on the culture defense argument, a review of how the legal system has dealt with cultural implications of a case will be presented. This paper will then discuss cultural issues embedded in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of psychiatric patients by forensic psychiatrists who are called upon to make the decision of whether or not to force medicate a patient against his will. Lastly, recommendations and a framework for providing a culturally sensitive assessment during the decision to forcibly medicate a patient with psychotropic medication will be offered.

Final priorities; Rehabilitation Services Administration--Capacity Building Program for Traditionally Underserved Populations--vocational rehabilitation training institute for the preparation of personnel in American Indian Vocation Rehabilitation Services projects. Final priorities.

The Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services announces two priorities under the Capacity Building Program for Traditionally Underserved Populations administered by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA). The Assistant Secretary may use one or more of these priorities for competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2014 and later years. Priority 1 establishes a new vocational rehabilitation (VR) training institute for the preparation of personnel in American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Services (AIVRS) projects (the Institute). Priority 2 requires a partnership between a four-year institution of higher education (IHE) and a two-year community college or tribal college. This partnership is designed to successfully implement the VR training Institute established in Priority 1. In addition, the partnership agreement required under Priority 2 provides a brief description of how the partnership will be managed, the partners' roles and responsibilities and a strategy for sustaining the partnership after the Federal investment ends.

California's historic effort to reduce the stigma of mental illness: the Mental Health Services Act.

In a historic effort to reduce the stigma of mental illness, California voters approved the Mental Health Services Act in 2004. The law funds a comprehensive statewide prevention initiative that places stigma and discrimination reduction at its center, with 25 projects providing interventions at the institutional, societal, and individual levels. Stakeholders selected specific strategies from the research-based California Strategic Plan on Reducing Stigma and Discrimination. Strategies range from social marketing to increase public knowledge to capacity building at the local level, including training that emphasizes participation by consumers of mental health services and cultural competence. Collectively, these strategies aim to foster permanent change in the public perception of mental illness and in the individual experience of stigma. We examined the context, planning, programming, and evaluation of this effort.

The quest for culturally sensitive health-care systems in Scotland: insights for a multi-ethnic Europe.

Health systems are serving increasingly ethnically diverse populations. This requires cultural sensitivity/competence. Sharing insights from multi-ethnic countries is important. Insights from Scotland, discussed in this paper, include that the creation of culturally sensitive health systems requires reduction of stigma associated with immigration and immigrants; the wider use of ethnicity alongside, or instead of, race, country of birth, nationality and immigrant status; prioritization of actions using the concept of inequity; understanding that meeting the needs of minorities improves health systems for everyone; more use of anti-discriminatory laws to drive national policy and locality planning; research to assess needs and effectiveness; evaluation of processes and outcomes; institutional and professional sincerity and confidence, and monitoring that policies are implemented and working. Even when conditions are favourable, as in Scotland, the challenges are many, implementation is tough and timescales long. Scotland's record is, nonetheless, comparatively strong in Europe. Sharing experience across national boundaries should spur on progress globally.

Truth, healing, and systems change: the Maine Wabanaki-state child welfare truth and reconciliation commission process.

Maine state child welfare staff understand the Indian Child Welfare Act requirements, yet their knowledge of Wabanaki history is limited because it has excluded the voices of the Wabanaki people. A group of Native people and state representatives are creating a truth and reconciliation commission process in Maine, designed to reckon with this history as a way of improving the child welfare system and promoting healing for Wabanaki children and families.

Findings from a national needs assessment of American Indian/Alaska native child welfare programs.

The National Child Welfare Resource Center for Tribes, a member of the Children's Bureau Child Welfare Training and Technical Assistance Network, conducted a national needs assessment of tribal child welfare. This assessment explored current practices in tribal child welfare to identify unique systemic strengths and challenges. A culturally based, multi-method design yielded findings in five areas: tribal child welfare practice, foster care and adoption, the Indian Child Welfare Act, legal and judicial, and program operations.

Normas con pertinencia cultural: hacia la interculturalidad / Norms with cultural relevance: towards interculturality

Siguiendo las ordenanzas descritas en el aparato legal respecto a la atención pertinente a la cultura de los cuatro pueblos: Maya, Garífuna, Xinka y Mestizo, y buscando generar la confianza de los mismos al proponer las políticas priorizadas por el Ministerio de Salud, que se refieren al mejoramiento de la Salud de los Pueblos Indígenas en Guatemala. Este documento tiene como objetivo normar los lineamientos generales de atención en salud con pertinencia cultural en los servicios, así como proporcionar a los proveedores de todos los niveles de atención, lineamientos que complementan las Normas de Atención de Salud Integral para orientar las acciones que el servidor público debe tomar en cuenta para propiciar las condiciones que permitan a el o la paciente, la confianza plena para la atención de su salud. Entre los lineamientos que contiene, están: respeto a los actores de los sistemas de salud indígenas; respeto a la referencia y considerar la contra referencia de y hacia los actores de los sistema de salud indígena en los servicios de salud; uso del vestuario indígena por los proveedores de salud; respeto a los elementos simbólicos que portan las y los pacientes de los pueblos indígenas en los servicios de salud y atención a las o los pacientes en el idioma materno, entre otros. Incluye además el marco legal internacional y nacional como fundamento para el derecho que tienen los pueblos; lineamientos generales de pertinencia cultural en salud y lineamientos para cada curso de la vida de acuerdo a las Normas de Atención.

Fostering and managing diversity in schools of pharmacy.

Organizational benefits of diversity in the workplace have been well documented. In health professions, however, diversity-related research traditionally has focused on the effect of diversity on health care disparities. Few tools exist describing the benefits of diversity from an organizational standpoint to guide pharmacy administrators and faculty members in nurturing and developing a culture of diversity. Given the scarcity of pharmacy specific data, experience from other academic areas and national/international diversity reports were incorporated into this manuscript to supplement the available pharmacy evidence base. This review summarizes the benefits of diversity from an academic organizational standpoint, discusses the issues administrators and faculty members must consider when developing programs, and provides guidance on best practices in fostering and managing diversity.

Working effectively with interpreters: a model curriculum for physician assistant students.

BACKGROUND: Effective patient-provider communication is crucial to achieving good health care outcomes. To accomplish this with patients of limited English proficiency, learning to work effectively with interpreters is essential. AIMS: The primary goal of this study was to determine if physician assistant students could effectively use interpreters to communicate with Spanish speaking patients after implementation of a cultural competency and Medical Spanish curriculum. METHOD: In year one of a three year implementation process, a module for teaching students to work effectively with interpreters was developed and implemented in the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Department of Physician Assistant Studies. After four hours of orientation, practice and role play, students were observed and recorded during a standardized patient assessment and evaluated by clinicians as well as by trained, bi-lingual evaluators. RESULTS: In the Class of 2007, 94% (43 students) and in the Class of 2008, 96% (47 students) demonstrated competence. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight the feasibility and usefulness of training students to work effectively with interpreters. Evaluation and feedback from students and faculty have been positive. Cost for this curriculum enhancement was reasonable, making it feasible to introduce the training into a wide variety of medical and allied health programs.

Critical perspectives on cultural competence as a strategic opportunity for achieving high performance in healthcare organizations.

* Cultural proficiency is a critical component of diversity competence. Diversity competency attends to issues of cultural proficiency and links cultural competence to issues of diverse representation and organizational inclusivity. * Developing and applying cultural competencies in diagnostic and invasive imaging services provides strategic opportunities to experience better patient cooperation, increase patient satisfaction, reduce medical errors, reduce patient complaints, and improve service recovery. * New Jersey recently passed legislation that requires 16 hours of cultural competency education as a condition of licensure to practice medicine. Four other states have similar legislation pending. The state of Washington passed legislation requiring all state accredited programs to include cultural competency education.