The Portal
Top sites that promote best practices in cross-cultural care

First Stops

• Culture Care Connection: A Minnesota online learning and resource center that supports health care providers, staff, and administrators in their ongoing efforts to provide culturally competent care.
• Provider’s Guide to Quality & Culture A federally managed site with comprehensive information about common health beliefs and practices of numerous groups, models for understanding cultural competence, videos and more.

State and National Sites, By Subject Area

• Language
  • Minnesota
  • National
• Literacy
  • Minnesota
  • National
• Culture
  • Minnesota
  • National
• Class
  • Minnesota
  • National
• Race
  • Minnesota
  • National
• Spirituality
  • Minnesota
  • National

Language (Minnesota)

• Multilingual Health Resource Exchange Library
  An online archive of over 2,400 translated PDFs for health education. Accessible to members of the Exchange, a Minnesota partnership. Not a member? Find out more.
• Interpreter Stakeholders Group
  Interpreters and others interested in promoting high quality medical interpreting meet monthly. Connected to the Upper Midwest Translators and Interpreters Association, which promotes the quality and prestige of the translating and interpreting industry in the upper Midwest region; provides networking, training, and development for local language professionals.
• Principles for Broad-Based Funding Mechanisms of Interpreter Services
  Developed by the Minnesota Interpreter Standards Working Group, November 2007. Downloadable PDF.

Language (National)

• The Health Care Language Services Implementation Guide
  A web-based interactive tool developed by the US Office of Minority Health that can assist health care organizations in planning, implementing, and evaluating language access services.
• Speaking Together
  A program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that aims at improving the quality and availability of language services offered at hospitals. A free toolkit offers detailed guidance to hospitals nationwide on how to build a high-quality language services program.
• National Council for Interpreting in Health Care Standards of Practice for Medical Interpreting
  Professional standards and ethics for medical interpreters, created and vetted by interpreters and interpreter managers across the country.
• Providing Oral Linguistic Services and Planning Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services
  Detailed guides from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services help managed care plans implement cultural competence interventions.

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Literacy (Minnesota)

• Minnesota Health Literacy Partnership
  Networking group meets monthly in Saint Paul to discuss health literacy issues and programs. Publishes issue briefs online.
• Minnesota Literacy Council
  Statewide organization to help children and adults acquire the literacy skills they need to become successful community citizens.

Literacy (National)

• America's Health Literacy: Why We Need Accessible Health Information
  Report summarizes key findings and presents some policy implications of the first-ever National Assessment of Adult Literacy.
• Quick Guide to Health Literacy
  What professionals can do to improve health literacy among adults, from the US Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s web site.
• What Did the Doctor Say? Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety
  Report from the Joint Commission explains how effective communication is a cornerstone of patient safety.
• Talking the Talk: Improving Patient-Provider Communication
  Easy to digest tips from the Macarthur Foundation’s Center for the Advancement of Health about health literacy and resources.

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Culture (Minnesota)

• Health Resources Serving Diverse Cultural Communities
  Published by the Refugee Health Program, Minnesota Department of Health. Hard copies of the directory can be requested from MDH. Contact Maggie Kenyon-Schultz at margaret.kenyon-schultz@state.mn.us or at (651) 201-5528.
• Minnesota Ethnic Resources Directory
  On-line directory of nearly 800 non-profit cultural, social/human service, educational, artistic, religious, community and government organizations engaged in ethnic/nationality services and activities.
• Immigrant Health: A Call To Action
  Recommendations from the Minnesota Immigrant Health Task Force, a two year advisory panel co-sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
• Minnesota Refugee Health Task Force
  Monthly networking and information-sharing group sponsored by the Minnesota Refugee Health Program.

Culture (National)

• Provider’s Guide to Quality & Culture
  A federally managed site with comprehensive information about common health beliefs and practices of numerous groups, models for understanding cultural competence, videos and more.
• CLAS-Talk
  E-mail discussion group sponsored by Resources for Cross Cultural Health Care and the DiversityRx website. Topics include design, delivery and evaluation of culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) in health care.
• HealthConnect – A Practical Guide to Community Outreach
  Free book offers practical tactics and resources to improve the ability of health care advocates to reach and serve people of all backgrounds.

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Class (Minnesota)

• Child& Teen Check-Ups Program
  Low income children and teens in Minnesota can be vaccinated and screened for preventable and more serious illnesses through this program administered by the state Department of Human Services.
• Bridge to Benefits
  An online program that helps families find out about and apply for Food Support, school meal programs, health care programs, energy assistance, child care assistance and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Produced by the Minnesota Children’s Defense Fund.
• Women and Health Insurance in Minnesota
  Office on the Economic Status of Women April 2007. Health insurance rates in the state by gender, as well as rates of public and private coverage.

Class (National)

• Reaching for a Healthier Life: Facts on Socioeconomic Status and Health in the U.S. Report from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health reveals the relationship between poor socioeconomic status and poor health in the U.S.
• Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States
  Based on 2005 census figures.
• Consequences of Uninsurance
  Six annual reports from the Institute of Medicine on health insurance and access to care in America.
• Association of Clinicians for the Underserved
  Nonprofit, transdisciplinary group to improve the health of America's underserved populations and enhance the development and support of the health care clinicians serving these populations.

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Race (Minnesota)

• Minnesota Black Physicians Association
  Offers health literacy, advocacy and leadership in promoting policies to improve the health status of all Minnesotans.
• Minnesota Department of Health, Office of Minority and Multicultural Health
  Administers the Eliminating Health Disparities grant program, funding community initiatives for American Indians, Africans/African Americans, Asians, and Latinos in eight health disparity areas.
• Population Health Status Reports
  Demographic and economic profiles for Minnesota sub-groups; birth related health indicators, mortality rates and cause of death, illness and injury, and access to health care.

Race (National)

• Kaiser Disparity Tool
  A comprehensive listing of resources, research and meta-tools on the interaction of race, ethnicity and health disparities from the Kaiser Foundation.
• Improving Quality and Achieving Equity: A Guide for Hospital Leaders
  Report presents evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in health care, and provides the rationale for addressing them with a focus on quality, cost, risk management and accreditation. It also highlights case studies and model practices, and recommends activities and resources that can help hospital leaders addressing health care disparities.
• Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care
  A comprehensive report by the Institutes of Medicine, 2002.
• Provider’s Guide to Quality & Culture
  A comprehensive website run by several federal health agencies. Sample the site by reviewing a summary of health problems among specific racial and ethnic groups in the US, such as sub-Saharan Africans, Latinos and African Americans.

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Spirituality (Minnesota)

• Center for Spirituality and Healing, University of Minnesota
  Research and training center that offers education, outreach and research in complementary, alternative and culturally based healing practices, integrating complementary and conventional health care.
• Hospice Minnesota Multicultural Initiative
  Hospice Minnesota is the "first call" resource center for information about care for people who are dying and their families. The organization’s multicultural initiative connects with audiences that have traditionally not made use of hospice services.

Spirituality (National)

• Spirituality and Health International
  Peer reviewed, non-denominational quarterly journal that explores spirituality as it affects those “who work in healing and caring ways.”
• Handbook of Religion and Health
  Discusses research on the relationship between religion and a variety of mental and physical health outcomes, and reviews research on the impact of religious affiliation, belief, and practice on the use of health services. 2001, available through Oxford University Press or on Amazon.com.
• National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
  Consumer info clearinghouse run by National Institutes of Health. Staff researches questions in English or Spanish, using government databases of scientific and medical literature. Includes a link to a live online chat with a health information specialist.
• Cultural Humility and Compassionate Presence at the End of Life
  A website developed at Santa Clara University presents cases regarding culturally competent health care, each linked to several short ethical reflections. Fictional patients are originally from Iran, Afghanistan, Oaxaca, and Puerto Rico.

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