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 1. Benefits, Values,
and Guiding Principles of Self-Assessment
Benefits of Self-Assessment
The capacity to engage
in cultural self-assessment helps individuals and organizations to:
- Gauge
the degree to which they are effectively addressing the needs
and preferences of culturally and linguistically diverse groups
- Establish
partnerships that will involve families, consumers, and
key community stakeholders in a meaningful way
- Improve
family/consumer access to and utilization of health care services
and related supports
- Increase family/consumer
satisfaction with the array of services and supports received
- Plan
strategically for the systematic incorporation of culturally and
linguistically competent policy, structures,
and practices
- Allocate personnel
and fiscal resources to enhance the delivery of health care services
and related
supports that are culturally
and
linguistically
competent
- Determine individual
and organizational strengths and areas for growth (Goode, Jones, & Mason, 2002)
Values and Guiding
Principles
 It is important to
discover and reach consensus on a set of values and principles to guide
all self-assessment activities undertaken
by the health care training
program. Optimally, this process would involve a diverse group of program
and departmental faculty and staff, other faculty and staff within the
school and
university, students, and key stakeholders in the community at large. The following are
values and guiding principles developed by the NCCC that
you may want to
consider.
| Self-assessment
is a strengths-based model |
The
purpose of self-assessment is to identify and promote growth among
individuals and within organizations that enhances cultural and
linguistic competency.
Self-assessment
should emphasize strengths at all levels of an organization,
often identifying and acknowledging
the internal assets of personnel that in many instances
are inadvertently overlooked.
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| A
safe and non-judgmental environment is essential to the self-assessment
process |
Self-assessment
is most productive when conducted in an environment that
- Offers
participants a forum to give honest answers about
their level of awareness, knowledge, and skills related to
cultural
and linguistic
competence;
- Provides
an opportunity for participants to share their individual
perspectives in a candid manner; and
- Ensures
that information provided will be used to effect meaningful
change within the organization.
The NCCC embraces
the concept that cultural
and linguistic competence is developmental and occurs
along a continuum (Cross et al., 1989).
It matters
not where an individual
or organization
starts, so long as there is continued progression
toward the positive end of the continuum.
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| A
fundamental aspect of self-assessment ensures the meaningful involvement
of consumers, community stakeholders, and key constituency groups |
Principles
of self-determination and cultural and linguistic competence ensure
that consumers are integrally involved in processes to plan, deliver,
and evaluate the services they receive. These principles extend
beyond the individual to the community as a whole.
Self-assessment
must solicit and value the experiences of consumers and
families who receive services. Similarly, opinions should be
sought from
key stakeholders and constituency groups who are involved
with, or affected by, the organization.
An inclusive
self-assessment process can forge alliances and partnerships
that have
long-lasting
benefit for the individuals, organizations, and the larger
community. Self-assessment processes should be designed for
ease of input
from these various constituencies.
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| The
results of self-assessment are used to enhance and build capacity |
The
intent of the self-assessment process is neither to render a score
or rating nor to label an individual or an organization. Rather,
it is intended to provide a snapshot of where an individual or
organization is along the continuum at a particular point in time.
Results should
be used to plan strategically both short- and long-term objectives
to enhance the organization’s cultural and linguistic
competency at all levels.
The NCCC’s
experiences with self-assessment have demonstrated that comparisons
between professionals and among
organizations are of little benefit.
The greatest
benefit is derived from individual and organizational self-comparisons
over extended
periods of time to ascertain the extent to which
growth has occurred.
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| Diverse
dissemination strategies are essential to the self-assessment process |
Self-assessment
results should be shared with participants and key stakeholders
in a manner that meets their unique needs. Optimally, this information
sharing would involve identification of the audiences and presentation
of the data in formats that are most useful and accessible to them.
The need for
information will vary for faculty, students, policy makers, administrators,
practitioners, consumers, and other key
stakeholders.
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