The Provider's Guide to Quality & Culture - For information and suggestions in providing high-quality, culturally competent services to multi-ethnic populations, go to http://www.erc.msh.org/.

AskSPHERE - is a clearinghouse of Public Health Training Resources, useful in providing in-house training to your staff. For more information, go to http://www.asksphere.org/.

Diversity Central - is a website featuring articles on diversity, latest developments in the industry of diversity, as well as upcoming trainings, resource information for consultants, legal developments and advice, job advertisements and upcoming events. Go to http://www.diversitycentral.com/ to access and view the collection of information and resources available.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has established a website featuring articles on minority health and legislative development in health policies involving minority and women's health issues. This website also features "best practices" regarding cultural competency in providing health services. For more information, go to http://www.kff.org/.

The Mayor's Office on Disability has updated information regarding the provision of access to individuals with disabilities, related policies and technical assistance to contractors and customers. For more information visit the MOCD website at http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/sfmod/index.htm. 

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has formed a public-private partnership with nine of the largest health insurance plans in an effort to reduce disparities in health care for people with diabetes and other conditions. The "National Health Plan Learning Collaborative to Reduce Disparities and Improve Quality" will test ways to improve the collection and analysis of data on race and ethnicity, match those data to existing quality measures, and develop quality improvement interventions that can be replicated by other health insurers and providers. Information: Go to http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2004/dispcolpr.htm

National Coalition for LGBT Health - is a resource website featuring the latest policy information regarding health issues that affect the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender community, including conferences and upcoming national meetings. For more information, visit their website at http://www.lgbthealth.net/

Implementation Guide for the Culturally & Linguistically Appropriate Services in health care (CLAS) on the internet at http://www.omhrc.gov/clas/guide2a.asp. This is recommended for contractors and program managers to familiarize themselves with the nationally recommended standards as set forth by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health. Use the link to download a hard copy of the CLAS Standards in PDF format.

Cultural Competence Compendium is featured by the American Medical Association, providing information to medical staff, such as doctors and nurses about the importance of providing culturally competent and sensitive services to patients. To find out more about the compendium, go to http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/4848.html.

Multicultural Health Disparities, California, 1990-1999, published by the Center for Health Statistics, Office of Health Information and Research, California Department of Health Services, April, 2003 (Acrobat file, 33 pgs)

The Asian/Pacific Islander Health Forum is a national advocacy organization dedicated to promoting policy, program and research efforts for the improvement of health status of all Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities. For more information, visit their website at http://www.apiahf.org/.

Asian Health Services features information on provision of medical services, health education, and advocacy issues for the Asian community. Go to http://www.ahschc.org/main.htm for more information and resource references.

The Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations is a coalition that promotes advocacy, collaboration and leadership that improves the health status and access of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders within the United States, its territories and freely associated states, primarily through its member health clinics. For information on community health care issues and referrals, visit their website at http://www.aapcho.org/.

The Center for Cross-Cultural Health has a mission to "integrate the role of culture in improving health." For more information and best practice model suggestions, visit the web at http://www.crosshealth.com/.

Migrant Clinicians Network is a national clinical network of health care providers who serve migrant farmworkers and other underserved mobile populations. In addressing any issues of providing health care to migrant farmworkers and underserved communities, please visit their website at http://www.migrantclinician.org/.

National Black Women's Health Project is an organization that seeks to improve the health of Black Women by providing wellness education and services, health information and advocacy. For more information regarding health issues affecting Black Women, visit the web at http://www.nbwhp.org/

NheLP is a website featuring additional cultural competency website locations, latest articles in cultural competency and health care, racial/cultural issues, as well as a list of other cultural and linguistic organizations with best practice models and the latest legislative developments at the Federal Government level regarding health issues affecting diverse populations. Check out this website at http://www.healthlaw.org/.

The Institute on Race, Health Care and the Law is dedicated to improving the health status of "ethnic" Americans (i. E. African-Americans, Latino(a) Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans and Pacific Americans) by helping legislators, policy makers, lawyers, health care professionals and consumers examine factors such as race, health and human rights. For more information, visit their website at http://www.udayton.edu/

DiversityRX - is a webpage that promotes language and cultural competence to improve the quality of health care for minority, immigrant and ethnically diverse communities. This webpage also features best-practices models for developing cultural competency programs, program assessment tools, information regarding upcoming training classes and conferences, and the latest developments in cultural and linguistic competency. For more information, visit the webpage at http://www.diversityrx.org/.

The Center for Cross-Cultural Health - is a clearinghouse and source of information, training and research on the role of culture in health. Contact the Center at http://www.crosshealth.com/.

The Center for Cross Cultural Research - focuses on teaching and contributions to curriculum, research and scholarship, and publications in cross-cultural psychology. For more information go to http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~lonner/cross_culture.html

The Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture & Health - provides a forum for basic and applied public health research on relationships among ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status and health. Promotes effective collaboration between public health academicians, health providers, and local communities. Visit the web at http://www.sph.umich.edu/crech/index.html

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Web page features downloads on program information, topics, laws and regulations, policy initiatives, resources and tools for health care providers and practitioners who are also responsible for developing cultural and linguistically appropriate procedures, policies and programs for their organization. This website also features the National Quality Assessment Performance Improvement (QAPI) project on clinical health care disparities or culturally and linguistically appropriate services. For more information, visit the website at: www.cms.gov/healthplans/quality/project03.asp

Critical Link 2 - is a website intended for connections of interpreters across Canada and the world. The Critical Link international conference series focuses on issues related to the accreditation, training and research in the field of community interpretation. For more information, visit the web at http://www.criticallink.org/English/index2.htm

The Yamada WWW Language Guides - are a set of guides containing 115 languages and 112 fonts for 40 languages in its archives. Links to annotated lists of language related news groups, and mailing lists are included at http://www.babel.uoregon.edu/yamada.guides.html

Multi-Lingual Health Education.net is a website featuring information on obtaining and providing interpreter services for clients in a confidential manner, as well as providing information on implementing procedures for accessing interpreter services and bi-lingual information to health care patients. For more information, visit the web at http://www.multilingual-health-education.net/faq.asp

Cross Cultural Health Care - Ethnicity & Health, is a journal of original papers in the fields of medicine, public health, epidemiology, statistics, population sciences, social sciences, and other disciplines of interest to health professions. Issues of culture, religion, lifestyle and racism as they relate to health, and its anthropological and social aspects are included, as well as subjects such as prevention, access to, and equity in health care, and models of appropriate and effective care. For more information, visit http://www.tandf.co.uk./journals/carfax/13557858.html

Hablamos Juntos ("We Speak Together") - provides technical assistance and guidance in interpreter training, signage and print materials and will also monitor the project interaction among grantees. The office also seeks to raise visibility and understanding about language barriers nationally through dissemination of material, developmental science base and production of a set of practice-oriented tools available. For more information, go to their website at: http://www.hablamosjuntos.org/

RESOURCE CENTER LINGUISTIC COMPETENCY RESOURCES SECTION

A Family Physicians Practical Guide to Culturally Competent Care. This is a web-based CME training about the 14 Cultural and Linguistic Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards from the HHS Office of Minority Health. Although intended for practicing family physicians, it is useful for any health professional or trainee. Available on DVD. December 2004. http://cccm.thinkculturalhealth.org/

New Report: Cultural Competency for California Public Health Staff As part of the OMH State Partnership Initiative, the UC San Francisco Center for the Health Professions has completed a report that outlines a cultural competency curriculum specifically for public health staff. The report, Cultural Competency for California Public Health Staff: Train-the-Trainer State Partnership Project, was written for the California Department of Health Services' Office of Multicultural Health. September 2004 http://futurehealth.ucsf.edu/pdf_files/Final%20OMH%20Report.pdf.

Report: Setting the Agenda for Research on Cultural Competence in Health Care This project looks at the question of what impact cultural competence interventions have on the delivery of health care and health outcomes, and investigates the opportunities and barriers that affect how further research in this area might be conducted. August 2004 http://www.omhrc.gov/cultural/cultural18.htm

Developing a Self-Assessment Tool for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Local Public Health Agencies: Final Report. December 2003 http://www.omhrc.gov/cultural/LPHAs_FinalReport.pdf