Cultural Competency Contributes to Opportunities Leading to Quality Performance and Health Outcomes: Forced Migration Experiences

Cultural competency is an euphemism for “thinking local and acting global.” People have interests at individual, societal, age-related, cultural, physical, economic, social, environmental, bio-medical, structural and gender levels. These are the enabling and responsive contexts that stimulate agency, autonomy, self-determination, productivity and pursuance of happiness. People develop and need to be empowered to act on the foundational ideas that enable them to make informed choices on how they wish to navigate life, be treated, treat others and deal with others. These are the basic tenets of cultural competency through which leaders, managers and administrators inform and empower themselves and those in their charge to work through many interests, needs, likes, dislikes and desires as they integrate economically or socially in a revolving world around them. It is what constitutes one’s meaning-making, decision Support, research, planning, policy formulation, programming, evaluation, cultural competency that addresses needs, interests, ethnicity, racial issues and encourages continuous learning at individual, community and organizational levels (Cetv, 2022).

Cultural competency contributes to standards of fairness, social justice, people-centredness, rights and evidence-based approaches which stimulate agency, autonomy, self-determination, productivity and transformation. It is about empowering and enhancing participant involvement in the actions of the health care facility of organization. Participants embody a culture and sense of feeling that contributes to self-esteem, self-efficacy, self-confidence and self-autonomy. They feel informed about the goings on of the organization, they are aware that they will be called upon to contribute ideas and take up responsibilities in implementing them, they are allowed to make comments or remarks, engage in demand creation, contribute to solution and delivery of services. It calls for capacity building, engagement in assessment of outcomes, uses planned outreach, participatory engagement and building of partnerships to ensure sustainability, catalyze and engender aspirations toward a work place environment that fosters inclusive positive prevention practice outcomes for all individuals concerned and involved in meeting the goals of the organization (South Southwest PTTC, 2023).

Cultural competence and creating a diverse work team are important health care administrator skills. Cultural competency anticipates the interests of diverse population groups. It is a crucible into which people place their needs, interests and aspirations with the assurance that the outcome will be opportunities to fulfil one’s potential, feeling of recognition and dignity affirmation for all. Cultural competency defines and characterizes attributes which are further linked to best-practices or tasks fostering quality life outcomes. Cultural competency is connected to independent diversity variables namely, gender, age, educational background and ethnicity. These in turn are the enabling and responsive contexts that moderate roles, preparedness, readiness, beliefs, influence agency, leadership expertise and performance of any person (Turi et al, 2022).

Cultural competency draws its efficaciousness and endurance from five major steps and these equip a health care administrator with knowledge, skills and attitude to ensure a culturally competent or proficient health care organization. ?Specifically, these are assessment, capacity, planning, implementation and evaluation. Assessment enables us to critically point out issues of inequities based on the status of an individual in a health care setting. It promotes the aspirations of standards of care, addresses issues like bias, stereotyping, prejudice and dismissiveness in the medical world of certain ethnicities as not needing the same care thought to be set aside for the privileged ones. It questions assumptions in the healthcare contexts that may contribute to status, background, racial and ethnic disparities (Stubbe, 2020); capacity is the act of ensuring the social determinants of health (SDH) such as education, housing quality, and access to healthy foods. If they are unfavourable, this contributes to poor healthcare outcomes for vulnerable communities (Nair, 2020); planning is being deliberate with implementation of say, knowledge hubs, skills, and evaluation of values through performance indicators through feedback from the diverse populations and make policies and professional practices to meet their unique needs (Getha-Taylor et al, 2020).

I have had the privilege of working with Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Displaced Persons from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, the DRC and Tanzania between 2017-2023. This is going to be my last year doing this kind of work and hand over to others we have trained. Beyond food, a blanket, water and a shelter, this constituency has its cultural needs which are dismissed as frivolous by many organizations supporting their welfare. On assessment, one finds that some have TB, HIV, Hepatitis, Diabetes and chronic illnesses including un addressed psychological trauma of losing a loved one, witnessing war, hunger and physical trauma. So, through organizing them into support groups, we were able to promote and make their voices visible, we trained them in strategic planning methods, advocacy, activism, health navigation and resource mobilization best practices. When Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Displaced Persons are empowered with community organizing knowledge, skills and attitude they contribute to self-development and that of the host communities. In Kenya, we managed to win a grant of USD 50,000.oo (fifty thousands) through which Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Displaced Persons are able to engage in Health Promotion activities as Champions and form partnerships with indigenous Kenyan communities to engage in activities that promote TB Prevention awareness, screening, diagnosis, testing, treatment and post-TB care practices contributing to the National TB Prevention goals.

From the above, one concludes that people have interests at individual, societal, age-related, cultural, physical, economic, social, environmental, bio-medical, structural and gender levels and that it is these that may influence their experience of benefits contributing to their quality of life. A health care administrator is called upon to calibrate organization mission with the people-centered approaches that address their agency, autonomy, rights, freedoms, needs, interests and desires in order to foster a culture that promotes health for all.

References:

Basic Cultural Competency. August 10, 2022. Cetv. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m1ElVAvp3c

Getha-Taylor, H., Holmes, M. H., & Moen, J. R. (2020). Evidence-Based Interventions for Cultural Competency Development Within Public Institutions.?Administration & Society,?52(1), 57-80. Retrieved from?https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399718764332

Nair, L., & Adetayo, O. A. (2019). Cultural Competence and Ethnic Diversity in Healthcare.?Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open,?7(5), e2219. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1097/GOX.0000000000002219

PFS Academy 2020 Making the Steps of the Strategic Prevention Framework Work: Cultural Competence. June, 2023. South Southwest PTTC. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co3jyYDA8Rs

Stubbe D. E. (2020). Practicing Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility in the Care of Diverse Patients.?Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing),?18(1), 49–51. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.20190041

Turi, J. A., Khastoori, S., Sorooshian, S., & Campbell, N. (2022). Diversity impact on organizational performance: Moderating and mediating role of diversity beliefs and leadership expertise.?PloS one,?17(7), e0270813. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270813

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