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Cultural Competence in Healthcare


More than 100 community members from 20 different ethnic backgrounds, representing small businesses, faith leaders, health professionals and activists gathered on April 6 to discuss the impact of culture on their well-being, and the efforts in Oregon to improve cultural competency in health care.

Pictured above: Dr. James Mason Executive Director of Culturally Competent Care Giving at Providence Health and Services; Minh Thanh Nguyen, Executive Director of Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans; and Joseph Santos-Lyons, APANO Executive Director

Asian Pacific Islander communities face serious health disparities, including language barriers and lack culturally competent care. Health care reform is changing how over 1 million Oregonians will receive care, and impacting some of our most vulnerable community members.

Over the last few years, the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) has engaged community members and leaders on health equity issues. The group has focused on language access, medical interpretation, cultural interpretation, cultural competency, health disparity research, workforce diversity, immigrant and refugee health care advocacy. APANO’s health equity team known as Health Equity and Reform Team (HEART) works for health equity and health insurance campaigns.

APANO's Board of Directors announced the “Resolution on Health Care Equity” outlining the following policy goals:
  • The advancement of cultural and linguistic competence of healthcare providers as a measure of quality. 
  • Increasing access to culturally and linguistically appropriate care through a diverse range of providers 
  • Increasing research efforts to understand health disparities, including disaggregation of ethnic/racial groups within Asian and Pacific Islanders · Creating incentives and programs to improve workforce diversity 
  • Addressing language access barriers through stronger medical interpreter programs and health care provider accountability measures. 
  • Expanding the Oregon Health Plan to cover all residents of Oregon regardless of citizenship 
  • Participation of the Asian Pacific Islander community members and leaders in the policy making process and program development efforts addressing health equity issues, including the establishment of accountability measures and equity benchmarks that ensure continued progress towards health equity. 

Learn more about APANo’s health equity work.

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