What Is Cultural and Linguistic Competence?

Because of shifting demographic trends in the United States, managed care plans need to change in order address the needs of multi-ethnic members. To help, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) commissioned development of two guides: Planning Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services and Providing Oral Linguistic Services (select for summaries). The guides use the definitions below.

Linguistic Competence: Providing readily available, culturally appropriate oral and written language services to limited English proficiency (LEP) members through such means as bilingual/bicultural staff, trained medical interpreters, and qualified translators.

Cultural Competence: A set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system or agency or among professionals that enables effective interactions in a cross-cultural framework.¹

Cultural and Linguistic Competence: The ability of health care providers and health care organizations to understand and respond effectively to the cultural and linguistic needs brought by the patient to the health care encounter.²

Cultural competence requires organizations and their personnel to:

• Value diversity.
• Assess themselves.
• Manage the dynamics of difference.
• Acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge.
• Adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of individuals and communities served.

References

¹ Cross et al. 1998. Towards a Culturally Competent System of Care: A Monograph on Effective Services for Minority Children Who Are Severely Emotionally Disturbed. Washington DC: CASSP Technical Assistance Center, Georgetown University Child Development Center.

² U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health. 2000. Assuring Cultural Competence in Health Care: Recommendations for National Standards and an Outcomes-Focused Research Agenda. https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/Assets/pdf/checked/Assuring_Cultural_Competence_in_Health_Care-1999.pdf