Improving Culturally Congruent Health Care for Children With Disabilities: Stakeholder Perspectives of Cultural Competence Training in an Interdisciplinary Leadership Training Program

Abstract

Introduction: Racially/ethnically diverse children with disabilities experience increased risk for health care disparities when compared to non-Hispanic White children with disabilities or racially/ethnically diverse children without disabilities. The purpose of this study was to progress culturally congruent health care by exploring cultural competence (CC) for an interdisciplinary leadership training program designed to improve services for children with disabilities. The study also sought to bridge a gap in the literature by including the perspectives of diverse health care consumers. Method: Q-methodology was used to support participant groups’ sorting of CC training outcomes by importance to identify factors of CC. Results: Data collected from 51 participants were subjected to a by-person factor analysis that yielded six factors explaining 50% of variance. Discussion: Findings validate some common elements of existing CC models and provide new perspectives regarding potentially overlooked aspects of CC, with many new perspectives provided by racially/ethnically diverse parents of children with disabilities.