Health Systems and Health Promotion Programs – the Necessity of Cultural Competence: An Ethical Analysis

Abstract

Health promotion programs in global health systems need to incorporate culturally competent care and provide linguistic access. This article describes the challenges in one country, the United States, and reports on research studies, which articulate the current gaps in meeting the above goals. Health care providers are bound by both legal and ethical standards to provide such care. Legal standards are cited. Regardless of legal standards, health care providers are also bound ethically to provide such care. An analysis of basic ethical concepts of principalism is described for the importance of these aspects of care.

The premise of this article is that one cannot have a successful health system without inclusion of culturally competent health promotion programs. And, one cannot have such health promotion programs without an understanding of the role that cultural and linguistic competence plays in the provision of clinically competent and cost-effective services. Not only is there a need for culturally competent care that is legally mandated in some countries, such care is ethically necessary. The first part of this paper will address the need for culturally and linguistically appropriate care and applicable laws and standards. The latter part of the paper will provide an ethical analysis. However, before doing that, one global perspective of health care concerns for underserved populations will be presented as well as a discussion of the importance of the use of ethical frameworks.

Citation

Ford, V. and Furlong, B. (2005), "Health Systems and Health Promotion Programs – the Necessity of Cultural Competence: An Ethical Analysis", Jacobs Kronenfeld, J. (Ed.) Health Care Services, Racial and Ethnic Minorities and Underserved Populations: Patient and Provider Perspectives (Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Vol. 23), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 233-243. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0275-4959(05)23011-9