Standard 13 | Partner with the community to design, implement and evaluate policies, practices and services to ensure cultural and linguistic appropriateness.
Purpose | Helps to provide responsive and appropriate service delivery to a community; ensures that services are informed and guided by community interests, expertise and needs; increases use of services by engaging individuals and groups in the community in the design and improvement of services to meet their needs and desires; to create an organizational culture that leads to more responsive, efficient, and effective services and accountability to the community; empowers members of the community in becoming active participants in the health and health care process.
Strategies for Achievement :
- Partner with local culturally diverse media to promote better understanding of available care and services and of appropriate routes for accessing services among all community members
- Utilize community health workers who are volunteer community members and paid front-line public health workers who are trusted members of the community served or have an unusually close understanding of that community. They generally share the ethnicity, language, socio-economic status, and life experiences of the community members. These social attributes and trusting relationships enable community health workers to serve as liaisons, links, or intermediaries between health and social services and the community to facilitate access to and enrollment in services and improve the quality and cultural competency of services
For additional strategies, see “The Blueprint“ an implementation guide to help you advance and sustain CLAS within your organization.
The Checklist | Work with your team to complete this Implementation Checklist for the National CLAS Standards to find areas of opportunity and create your CLAS Action Worksheet!
The Great Plains QIN team developed a simple video to outline the National CLAS Standard 13. If you have questions or would like technical assistance on how to implement the National CLAS Standards, contact a member of the Great Plains QIN Team.