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Key Conceptual Issues in the Forging of “Culturally Competent” Community Health Initiatives: A South African Example

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2008

CHRISTIAN SIMON
Affiliation:
Department of Bioethics at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
MAGHBOEBA MOSAVEL
Affiliation:
Center for Reducing Health Disparities, MetroHealth Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

Extract

Many cultural competency efforts in healthcare stress the importance of cultural diversity and difference. This emphasis is necessary and well justified. It has helped sensitize healthcare systems to the differences among people and their health-related attitudes, preferences, and behaviors. However, the emphasis on diversity and difference has, unfortunately, also detracted from serious consideration of the things that cultures have in common and the possibility that socioeconomic differences are today far more important than cultural ones in determining healthcare outcomes.We thank the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland, Ohio, for supporting the research on which this paper is based. We are also grateful to the wonderful people of Masidaal, our project coordinator, Debbie van Stade, and our large team of research assistants for making the research possible.

Type
SPECIAL SECTION: ILLUMINATING CULTURE, HEALTH, AND ETHICS: BEYOND EQUALITY AND JUSTICE
Copyright
© 2008 Cambridge University Press

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