Multicultural Health

In June of 2003, the Griffin Center for Health and Human Rights secured a grant from the Connecticut Health Foundation to conduct a Griffin Hospital-Lower Naugatuck Valley Multicultural Health Initiative (MCHI). The MCHI is a community-wide cultural competence needs assessment that specifically addresses the needs of community-based hospitals like Griffin, in an effort to assist them to provide better care for racial and ethnic minorities. The goal of the MCHI is to develop and implement a model policy for cultural competency in a community-based hospital, utilizing a hospital-community partnership, in an effort to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities in the Lower Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut and at the national level. A one-year initiative, objectives for this project include 1) the development of a needs assessment of current practices, including a community assessment of hospital performance and gaps in services, 2) implementation of the needs assessment that identifies and measures the effectiveness of culturally and linguistically appropriate services at Griffin Hospital and includes surveys, interviews, and focus groups with community members, leaders, and providers and hospital personnel, analysis of data collection and reporting, human resource policies, and evaluation of media and patient information materials, 3) and presentation of findings and preparation and dissemination of a "best practices" model for a cultural competence needs assessment in a community-based hospital.