Cultural Competence: A Literature Review and Conceptual Model for Mental Health Services

This article presents a conceptual model of organizational cultural competence for use in mental health services that resulted from a comprehensive review of the research literature. The model identifies four factors associated with cultural competence in mental health services (community context, cultural characteristics of local populations, organizational infrastructure, and direct service support) and redefines cultural competence as the degree of compatibility among these factors. A strength of this model of organizational cultural competence is that it facilitates future research and practice in psychiatric services settings and links culturally competent practices to service parity. (Psychiatric Services 60:1046–1050, 2009)