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The concept of "cultural competence" is drawn from a model, which has been used in the provision of mental health and social services to indicate a set of behaviors, attributes and policies enabling an agency to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.
In attempting to define the phrase, it is critical to point out that "cultural competence" is not a fixed characteristic of an agency, rather it is an on-going developmental process engaged in by agencies and individuals to address diversity in the community service area. Thus it is not surprising that cultural competence is often defined as a "system" or a "model." For instance, in the seminal work, Towards a Cultural Competent System of Care, (Cross, Bazron, Dennis and Issacs, 1989), a treatise widely used in all levels of mental health and other private and public service systems, "cultural competence" is defined as a system that .... " acknowledges and incorporates at all levels the importance of culture, the assessment of cross-cultural relations, vigilance toward the dynamics that result from cultural difference, the expansion of cultural knowledge, and the adaptation of services to meet culturally unique needs."
As the definition above illustrates, cultural competence is developed in a program as an intrinsic and pervasive part of service delivery planning and implementation, not as an isolated set of guidelines to be adopted by a program and placed on a shelf. By the same token, cultural competence itself is not a performance outcome which can be numerically quantified and measured. Rather, cultural competence is demonstrated through a cluster of measured activities, such as the Standards of Accessibility for Latino clients (see attachment 4), tailored to the program's mission, and designed to assure access and culturally appropriate services to the program's client population.