Cultural Competency in Mental Health Care
We Need To Have A Meeting: Cultural Competency in Mental Health Care
As a Black psychiatrist, I’ve had the joy of treating patients from all walks of life. What I’ve learned is that effective mental health care isn’t one-size-fits all.
Cultural competency means being aware of and addressing cultural differences in treatment. It’s about creating a safe, respectful space where all patients feel understood and valued. Unfortunately, so many patients (my family members and I included) have experienced violations of these most basic expectations in health care at large. Whether from implicit bias or outright malpractice, the threat to health and well-being is real. It could be because of your ethnicity, your religion, or common stereotype that you’re “drug-seeking” when what you want is relief from the mental health symptoms causing dysfunction in your day-to-day life.
So What Do We Do?
Medical practitioners certainly have to grow in their awarenesses of these situations. But I want to challenge us ALL to grow in our thinking in this area and not miss this fact: More effective than finding same-race, same-gender, same-beliefs treatment, is finding health providers that deliver understanding and respect within a cultural context period. This difference can work wonders for optimal outcomes.
Do you need someone to look like you, talk like you, dress like you, and believe exactly what you believe, or do you need someone who gets where you’re coming from and tailors the treatment to actually help you? Because we don’t need to be twins for me to lend you a hand on your way to wellness.
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