Improving Care for Children with Special Health Care Needs from Diverse Cultural Backgrounds: An Action Plan.

This document reports on a 1998 conference of some 30 parents, educators, social workers, advocates, physicians, nurses, and social scientists who met to develop an action plan for improving the quality of services and cultural competence of providers of services to children with special health care needs from diverse cultural backgrounds. The conference produced 10 recommendations: (1) build mechanisms to assure true family and community participation in design, implementation, and evaluation of programs and services; (2) develop policies and funding that support family-centered culturally competent care; (3) train families and professionals in collaborative decision-making processes; (4) use educational funds to develop core interdisciplinary curricula for professionals; (5) assure compliance with funding agency guidelines regarding culture and ethnicity; (6) develop needs assessments and satisfaction evaluations with stakeholders and families; (7) develop a system of care that promotes the value of the individual and a sense of belonging; (8) increase the numbers of professionals from underrepresented groups in health care; (9) provide flexibility in funding to meet the individual care needs of families; and (10) develop developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive models for assessing the child's health and functional status. (DB)