Assessment of Health Equity using a Framework for CLAS

CLAS stands for culturally and linguistically appropriate services. CLAS is services that are respectful of and responsive to each person's culture and communication needs. CLAS helps your organization take into account cultural health beliefs, preferred languages, health literacy levels, and communication needs.

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Theme 1: Governance, Leadership, and Workforce

CLAS Standard 2: Advance and sustain organizational governance and leadership that promotes CLAS and health equity through policy, practices, and allocated resources.

1. Identify and designate a CLAS champion or champions, who are supported by theorganization's leadership, and whose specific responsibilities include (at a minimum) continuous learning about,promoting, and identifying and sharing educational resources about CLAS and the National CLAS Standards throughout the organization.*

Currently implementing

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Not planning to implement at this time

2. Create and implement a formal CLAS implementation plan that is (at a minimum) endorsed and supported by the organization's leadership, that describes how each Standard is understood, how each Standard will be implemented and assessed, and who in the organization is responsible for overseeing implementation.

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CLAS Standard 3: Recruit, promote, and support culturally and linguistically diverse governance, leadership, and workforce that are responsive to the population in the service area.

3. Target recruitment efforts to the populations served to increase the recruitment of culturally and linguistically diverse individuals, through actions such as: posting job descriptions in multiple languages in local community media, holding job fairs in the community(ies) served, and/or working with leaders of local community institutions to create mentorship and training programs targeting populations served.

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4. Create internal organizational mentorship programs, specifically targeting culturally and linguistically diverse individuals, that provide information about and support for additional training opportunities, and that links individuals in junior positions with individuals in senior positions to receive career guidance and advice.

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CLAS Standard 4: Educate and train governance, leadership, and workforce in culturally and linguistically appropriate policies and practices on an ongoing basis.

5. Deliver or make freely available continuous CLAS-related training and technical assistance to leadership and all staff.

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6. Create and disseminate new resources about CLAS within the organization using widely accessible platforms (e.g., employee- dedicated webpages, employee Intranet, employee break room).

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7. Incorporate assessment of CLAS competencies (e.g., bilingual communication, cross-cultural communication, cultural and linguistic knowledge) on an ongoing basis into staff performance ratings.

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Not planning to implement at this time

Is this a priority area you want to focus on?

Yes

Identify an area or practice you would like to focus on improving.

Identify a current challenge your organization is experiencing related to the area of focus.

What is the goal or outcome you would like to achieve? Include action steps and timelines for implementation.

Theme 2: Communication and Language Assistance

CLAS Standard 5: Offer language assistance to individuals who have limited English proficiency and/or other communication needs, at no cost to them, to facilitate timely access to all health care and services.

8. Complete an organizational assessment specific to language assistance services to describe existing language assistance services and to determine how they can be more effective and efficient.*

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9. Standardize procedures for staff members and train staff in those procedures. It may be appropriate to provide staff with a script to ensure that they inform individuals of the availability of language assistance and to inquire whether they will need to utilize any of the available services.

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CLAS Standard 6: Inform all individuals of the availability of language assistance services clearly and in their preferred language, verbally and in writing.

10. Provide individuals with notification that describes what communication and language assistance is available, in what languages the assistance is available, and to whom they are available. Notification should clearly state that communication and language assistance is provided by the organization free of charge to individuals.

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CLAS Standard 7: Ensure the competence of individuals providing language assistance, recognizing that the use of untrained individuals and/or minors as interpreters should be avoided.

11. Require that all individuals serving as interpreters complete certification or other formal assessments of linguistic and health care terminology skills to demonstrate competency.

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12. Provide financial and/or human resource (e.g., time off) incentives to staff who complete interpreter training and meet assessment criteria, to build organizational capacity to provide competent language assistance.

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CLAS Standard 8: Provide easy-to-understand print and multimedia materials and signage in the languages commonly used by the populations in the service area.

13. Formalize processes for translating materials into languages other than English and for evaluating the quality of these translations. This may include testing materials with target audiences.

Currently implementing

Planning to implement

Not planning to implement at this time

Is this a priority area you want to focus on?

Yes

Identify an area or practice you would like to focus on improving.

Identify a current challenge your organization is experiencing related to the area of focus.

What is the goal or outcome you would like to achieve? Include action steps and timelines for implementation.

Theme 3: Engagement, Continuous Improvement, and Accountability

CLAS Standard 9: Establish culturally and linguistically appropriate goals, policies, and management accountability, and infuse them throughout the organization's planning and operations.

14. Incorporate CLAS into mission, vision, and/or strategic plans by determining how organization acknowledges and addresses concepts such as diversity, equity, inclusion, and practices such as asking individuals about preferences for care/services.*

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CLAS Standard 10: Conduct ongoing assessments of the organization's CLAS-related activities and integrate CLAS-related measures into measurement and continuous quality improvement activities.

15. Tailor existing evaluation efforts to include measures of CLAS implementation (e.g., patient/client satisfaction measures can include questions about CLAS; outcome data can be stratified by REAL data to determine demographic differences).

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16. Complete a CLAS-related organizational assessment of the cultural and linguistic needs of populations served and of organizational resources to address these needs.

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CLAS Standard 11: Collect and maintain accurate and reliable demographic data to monitor and evaluate the impact of CLAS on health equity and outcomes, and to inform service delivery.

17. Collect race, ethnicity, and language (REAL) data (at a minimum) from all individuals receiving services, either by tailoring existing data collection approaches or creating a new data collection process.

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18. Use REAL data to identify needs, describe current care and service provision trends, and improve care and service provision.

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CLAS Standard 12: Conduct regular assessments of community health assets and needs, and use the results to plan and implement services that respond to the cultural and linguistic diversity of populations in the service area.

19. Collaborate with stakeholders and community members in community health needs assessment data collection, analysis, and reporting efforts to increase data reliability and validity.

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CLAS Standard 13: Partner with the community to design, implement, and evaluate policies, practices, and services to ensure cultural and linguistic appropriateness.

20. Include community members in the process of planning programs and developing policies to ensure cultural and linguistic appropriateness by convening town hall meetings, conducting focus groups, and/or creating community advisory groups.

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CLAS Standard 14: Create conflict and grievance resolution processes that are culturally and linguistically appropriate to identify, prevent, and resolve conflicts or complaints.

21. Consider using staff as cultural brokers to help improve feedback mechanisms, conflict resolution process, and communication with culturally and linguistically diverse individuals.

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CLAS Standard 15: Communicate the organization's progress in implementing and sustaining CLAS to all stakeholders, constituents, and the general public.

22. Partner with community organizations to lead discussions about the services provided and progress made and to create advisory boards on issues affecting diverse populations and how best to serve and reach them.

Currently implementing

Planning to implement

Not planning to implement at this time

Is this a priority area you want to focus on?

Yes

Identify an area or practice you would like to focus on improving.

Identify a current challenge your organization is experiencing related to the area of focus.

What is the goal or outcome you would like to achieve? Include action steps and timelines for implementation.

I want Telligen's assistance with health equity.

If you need additional support or assistance with Culturally Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS), contact the Telligen health equity team at QIConnect@telligen.com