Highlights 

Questions?
Contact:
Lisa Morris
508-856-3572 phone

 

“As health care professionals, we really need to learn and understand about the people that we’re seeing: their health beliefs, their traditions of getting health care, and the differences that they’re facing here in the United States.”

Warren Ferguson, MD, Vice Chair, UMMS Department of Family Medicine and Community Health

 

Consulting Services

For organizations across the spectrum of health care, Office of Community Programs (OCP) offers broad cross-cultural training and teaching to staff of all levels and backgrounds, promoting a better understanding of the diverse cultures served. We believe self-assessment of one’s own culture, biases, stereotypes and perspectives is critical, as well as understanding of the culture-specific values, morés, beliefs and behaviors of various populations. We do not narrowly define culture, but recognize that differences in sexual orientation, age and gender, and religion also bring different perspectives.

Increasingly health care organizations are identifying gaps in cultural understanding, but lack the internal resources to close them. Our consultants help hospitals, health centers and human service agencies improve staff skills by providing data, training and technical assistance to ensure services provided are both culturally and linguistically appropriate. Services that we have provided clients have included:

  • Developing a customized medical interpreter training program
  • Providing medical interpreter training and certification
  • Developing Advanced Series programming for trained interpreters
  • Performing cultural awareness assessments for organizations
  • Providing cultural awareness trainings
  • Developing culturally relevant educational materials
  • Establishing an interpreter service
  • Provider training on how to work with interpreters

 View Clients Served 

To learn more about cross cultural services for your organization, contact our program director at lisa.morris@umassmed.edu.