Development of an Educational Program on Cultural Competence for Psychiatric Professionals / 医学教育

ABSTRACT

We developed an educational program on cultural competence for psychiatric professionals. Regarding social justice education that critically questions dominant ideologies, we held weekly 30-minute discussion groups with multidisciplinary professionals. Rather than focusing on a particular culture group, we aimed to realize through critical self-reflection, as advocated by Kumagai and Lypson, that “there is a part of the other that I cannot know,” and named this group the “Discussion Group on Otherness.” Using essays on medical culture written by researchers in the medical humanities as our main teaching material, we discussed what is (or should be) the relevant problem. This article discusses the issues that have emerged so far, the responses to these issues, and future developments.