Take Action - Culture Matters

Advance your organization's delivery of culturally competent care by developing your understanding of cultural competence by through these actions steps.

Read the Institutes of Medicine’s Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare. This groundbreaking report underscores the existence of racial and ethnic disparities in health care and offers recommendations for addressing them. The ideas presented in this report laid the foundation for current research, tools, and methodologies for addressing health disparities. Executive summary (45-page PDF)

Examine your own cultural competence by taking the Culture Care Connection Quick Quiz. This 10-question quiz provides an opportunity assess your knowledge of the different cultures in Minnesota, cultural norms, health issues, and communication considerations.

Become familiar with the Office of Minority Health’s (OMH) National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards. OMH developed the CLAS standards in order to offer standard structures, processes, and services to address health disparities. Some of the standards are voluntary, while others are federally mandated under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Review the Culture Care Connection Minnesota County Profiles for the counties that your health care organization serves. Learn more about demographic, socio-economic, and health status characteristics in order to better understand your community’s needs and accurately plan for and implement services to address them.

Evaluate your organization’s adherence to CLAS Standards by taking the Culture Care Connection CLAS Assessment. An online assessment tool is used to evaluate adherence to the OMH CLAS standards. Evaluations include recommendations for specific actions that can be taken to advance their organization’s implementation of CLAS standards.