Promoting Health Literacy through the Office of Minority

Health CLAS Standards

Guadalupe Pacheco, MSWProject Officer, Think Cultural

HealthHHS Office of Minority Health

Overview

• Introduction

• Health Literacy and the HHS OMH CLAS Standards

• Health Literacy and the HHS Office of Minority Health

HHS Office of Minority Health

• Mission: To improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will eliminate health disparities

HHS Office of Minority Health

• National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care (CLAS Standards)

• National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities

Health Literacy

• Determinants of limited health literacy

• Populations most likely to have limited health literacy

Source: HHS 2010

Health Literacy

• Health literacy affects quality of care

• Disproportionate impact on Limited English Proficient individuals and racial and ethnic minorities

• Grave implications for health outcomes for diverse communities

Source: HHS 2010

Health Literacy and the HHS OMH CLAS Standards • National Standards for Culturally and

Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care (CLAS Standards)– Culturally Competent Care– Language Access Services– Organizational Supports

Health Literacy and the HHS OMH CLAS Standards • Culturally Competent Care

– Patient-centered care– Fact-centered vs. attitude/skill-centered

approach– Disease vs. illness

• Language Access Services– Interpersonal communication best practices – Strategies to provide language access services– Interpretation and translation

• Organizational Supports– Training staff in cultural competency– Collecting patient data– Community partnerships

• Enhancement Initiative: Fall 2011

• Revisiting the CLAS Standards to broaden their scope and advance the field for the next decade.

Health Literacy and the HHS OMH CLAS Standards

• Understandable communication to individuals who have low literacy skills is part of culturally and linguistically competent services.

• Cultural and linguistic competency of health professionals can mitigate the effects of low health literacy.

Health Literacy and the HHS OMH CLAS Standards

Health Literacy and the HHS Office of Minority

Health • National Partnership for Action to

End Health Disparities – Mobilize and connect individuals and

organizations across the country to create a Nation free of health disparities, with quality health outcomes for all people

Health Literacy and the HHS Office of Minority

Health • National Partnership for Action to

End Health Disparities – Stated strategies to eliminate health

disparities include a discussion of improving health literacy and communication

• National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy’s goals include:

– Promote changes in the health care system that improve health information, communication, informed decision making, and access to health services

– Support and expand local efforts to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate health information services in the community

Health Literacy and the HHS Office of Minority

Health

• OMH supports these goals through:

– CLAS Standards– Think Cultural Health: a cultural

competency clearinghouse

Health Literacy and the HHS Office of Minority

Health

Think Cultural Health• Continuing education programs that

equip health professionals with awareness, knowledge, and skills to treat diverse patients

• Up-to-date information on issues related to cultural competency and health disparities

• Tracking of cultural competency legislation around the country

Health Literacy and the HHS Office of Minority

Health

Summary

• Health literacy fundamentally impacts quality of care, and limited health literacy among racial and ethnic minorities have grave implications for health outcomes for diverse communities.

• Cultural and linguistic competency of health professionals can mitigate the effects of low health literacy

• The HHS Office of Minority Health plays an integral role in advancing the goals of the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy.

Guadalupe Pacheco, MSWProject Officer

Office of Minority Health, HHSGuadalupe.Pacheco@hhs.gov

For More Information

www.ThinkCulturalHealth.hhs.gov