Second National
Conference on
Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations:
Strategy and Action for Communities, Providers, and a Changing Health
System
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Second National
Conference on |
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| October 11-14, 2000 |
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Wed., October 11 | Th., October 12 | Fr., October 13 | Sat., October 14 | Poster Presentations | ||||||||
1-2. Community Advisory Committees: Successes And ChallengesCalifornia's Department of Health Services has required MediCal Managed Care HMOs to develop Community Advisory Committees to help direct their efforts toward being more culturally competent organizations. Regular input from a community perspective is supposed to help produce programs and organizational procedures that reduce barriers to culturally sensitive care. At least that is the theory. However, community-based organizations and non-profit agencies are almost always understaffed and stretched to their limits. Their leaders can see participation as committing precious staff time and energy to help you meet your compliance requirements, and it can be a challenge to overcome this perception and make participation meet some of their own organizational needs. The real challenge is to produce a functioning committee that serves the compliance needs of the Managed MediCal HMO, genuinely assists the HMO in its work beyond mere technical compliance, and gives the overburdened CBOs and agencies concrete benefits for their investment of time and energy. Molina Healthcare of California, an HMO largely committed to serving members covered under Managed MediCal, reorganized and revitalized its Community Advisory Committee (CAC) at the beginning of this year. We have now had four meetings with an average attendance including about 15 non-Molina participants, and have begun working collaboratively with Molina staff on the production of some health education materials. This workshop will review some of the techniques used to develop a fully functioning committee and will discuss some of the specific difficulties that we believe many will encounter while building similar committees. Topics to be discussed include:
Organizing a Community Advisory Committee can be difficult. We will share our experience encountering negative attitudes towards HMOs, and dealing with shifting membership and lack of continuity. Overall, however, our experience has been positive and has demonstrated several new ways that medical establishments can improve their ability to serve increasingly diverse communities in a more culturally responsive manner. Dr. Margie Akin, PhD was a community activist and organizer in the Riverside area before returning to the University of California at Riverside to earn her PhD in Anthropology (1992). She worked as a university instructor and a consultant from 1992 to 1999, teaching anthropology, organizational culture, and related subjects to both anthropology and business majors from most of the ethnic groups in Southern California. At California State University San Bernardino she co-authored a major study on the university's diversity issues, problems and solutions. In 1999 she went to work for Molina Healthcare as their Cultural and Linguistic Specialist. At Molina she has developed major cultural competence initiatives including a 6-hour training that is now part of the orientation for all new employees.
Konane Martinez, MA is a graduate student at the University of California Riverside, and worked as an intern at Molina for four months. She is currently doing research to complete her doctoral dissertation on migrant farmworker health issues on both sides of the border. LA Care Health Plan LA Care Health Plan established Regional Community Advisory Committees (RCACs) representing 11 distinct areas of Los Angeles County to receive regional advisory input regarding access to services, cultural and linguistic issues, member satisfaction and community health issues. Furthermore, the RCACs serve as a means for collaborative planning of community activities and generation of issues for policy development. Community stakeholders participating in the committees include LA Care Health Plan members, parents or guardians of LA Care members, advocates and providers in LA Care's network. The LA Care members who serve on the RCACs elect the member and member advocate representatives to the Board of Governors. The chairperson of each RCAC serves on the Executive Community Advisory Committee, which has the ability to place motions for consideration before the Board of Governors. Currently, there are a total of 204 members of the RCACs, 124 of which are LA Care members or their parents. This presentation will review: the process of creating the advisory committees; lessons learned about community planning, recruitment and retention; and challenges and successes related to this model of member participation. Linda A. Jones is manager in the Department of Community Outreach & Education at LA Care Health Plan. In this capacity, she is responsible for the planning and oversight of activities for eleven regional community advisory committees and ensuring committee participation by health plan members. LA Care Health Plan is a non-profit, community-accountable HMO with over half a million members who receive coverage through the MediCal (Medicaid) and Healthy Families (CHIP) programs. LA Care is governed by 13 board members who represent medical professionals, hospitals, clinics, and LA Care members. It is one of California's largest health plans and the nation's largest publicly governed health plan. Prior to joining LA Care, Ms. Jones spent 14 years working in the social services field, where she gained much of her experience in working with the linguistically and culturally diverse communities of Los Angeles County. Ms. Jones has worked as a case manager at Women, Infants and Children (WIC), El Nido Family Centers, and the Southern California Youth and Family Center. Ms. Jones earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
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essentials | models
and practices | policy |
legal issues | networking |
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Diversity Rx is sponsored by: |
 The National Conference of State Legislatures |
 Resources for Cross Cultural Health Care |
 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation |
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