Attention nursing home partners: A resident’s care plan must reflect the individual resident’s needs and preferences and align with the resident’s cultural identity and interventions for trauma survivors. This requirement is better explained below and we are here to help!
Culturally Competent Care. Refers to a person’s ability to interact effectively with persons of cultures different from his/her own. It means being respectful and responsive to the health beliefs, practices, and cultural and linguistic needs of diverse population groups, such as racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups. Delivering culturally and linguistically appropriate services supports these efforts. Utilize the National CLAS Standards to identify where your organization is meeting these standards and opportunities for improvement. (Details below).
Trauma Informed Care. Facilities must also recognize the effects of past trauma on residents and collaborate with the resident, family, and friends of the resident to identify and implement individualized interventions. Interventions for trauma survivors should recognize the interrelation between trauma and symptoms of trauma, such as: substance abuse, eating disorders, aggression, depression, anxiety and withdrawal or isolation from others. Learn more.
CMS has developed training resources to explain these requirements [F699 Trauma Informed Care and F656 Comprehensive Care Plans]. For detailed information, refer to Appendix PP in the CMS State Operations Manual.
♦ CMS Trauma Informed Care Video (10 minutes) | CMS Trauma Informed Care Presentation Slides
Additional Resources:
- Key Ingredients for Trauma-Informed Care
- Creating Safe Health Care Environments for Patients and Staff
Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards: How Do You Measure Up?
Take the CLAS Checklist and Action Plan assessment. Great Plains QIN utilized the Office of Minority Health Implementation Checklist for the National CLAS Standards to help measure where your nursing home is on this journey, identify needs and develop an improvement plan to address the basic elements of CLAS. This tool will help address communication and cultural barriers and establish a framework for improvement that works best for your organization. Please keep in mind, there is no single correct way to implement the National CLAS Standards. The Assessment will take about 10 minutes to complete.
Additional Resources:
- The Guide to Providing Effective Communication and Language Assistance Services (CLAS training for health care administrators and health care providers)
- Culturally Competent Nursing Care: A Cornerstone of Caring (CLAS training for nurses)
If you need assistance or have questions about these new requirements or to better understand the CLAS Standards, please contact a member of our team. We would love to answer your questions and assist your home in this journey.