VNA Care Network Awarded $15,000 Grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation recently awarded VNA Care Network's Cultural Competency Program a $15,000 grant to strengthen a partnership with Centro Las Americas (CLA) and design a program that involves medical interpreter training for CLA staff and cultural competence training for VNA Care Network staff to better serve Hispanic patients.
"Delivering culturally competent health care has significant implications for quality and patient safety, and goes well beyond linguistic translation of materials," said Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation president Andrew Dreyfus. "It also means responding to the different values, beliefs, and decision-making styles of a diverse patient population at all levels of an organization — administrative staff to clinicians."
By the year 2025, the Census Bureau predicts that more than 40 percent of the Massachusetts population will self-identify as members of a minority racial or ethnic group. And despite progress in overall national health, there are persistent disparities in disease incidence and death for these populations compared to their White, non-Hispanic counterparts. Numerous factors contribute to these disparities and enhancing cultural competency in the delivery of health care is one way to reduce these inequalities.
Pathways to Culturally Competent Health Care grants from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts support health care delivery organizations in expanding access to culturally competent health care in a way that is systemic, replicable, and sustainable. Since its inception in 2001, the BCBSMA Foundation has awarded 404 grants, totaling $11.6 million, to 174 organizations, and developed numerous policy initiatives to expand access to health care for uninsured and low-income individuals and families in Massachusetts.
VNA Care Network's Cultural Competency Program was established in September 2001 to educate health care professionals about the ways cultural beliefs affect people's access to health care and improve the care and services available to area residents. The program is available in more than 200 communities in Eastern and Central Massachusetts served by VNA Care Network.
Posted: May 6, 2005