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Ongoing advocacy for program management and
staff that is representative and reflective of the diverse clients they
serve. This also includes the management and staff of OASAS
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We recommend that this commitment to
diversity should be institutionalized and articulated in the mission,
vision, values statement and strategic plan of every treatment and
prevention service provider.
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Every service provider should ensure that
their management and staff undergo regular, formal training in diversity
and competency, consistent with OASAS Local Service Bulletin #2001-01.
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Every service provider should develop a
written strategy to recruit, retain and promote diverse, culturally
competent administrative, managerial, clinical and support staff who are
trained and qualified to address the specific needs of the diverse
racial and ethnic communities served. Every service provider should
review and adjust its policies and procedures to ensure that they
reflect their commitment to diversity and competency, including areas such
as intake, treatment planning, discharge planning and client
satisfaction.
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We support the plans by OASAS and ASAP for
leadership development and would recommend that these plans include
cultural diversity and cultural competency training.
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Every service provider should ensure that
all written materials are fully accessible to all clients served, such
as forms, rules and regulations, and consents for disclosure of
information ("releases") and bibliotherapeutic materials.
These materials should be written in a variety of languages which would
make them easily understood by the populations served.
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Every service provider should have a
practical written policy and procedure manual which includes addressing
the needs of clients, applicants and collateral contacts who are
disabled.
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OASAS should continue to develop and deliver
curricula on competency-related issues and skills, and make these trainings
more available to providers.
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As part of the CASAC credentialing and
re-credentialing process, OASAS should require that applicants complete
a minimum number of training hours in diversity and competency training.
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We advocate that OASAS create a statewide
service directory for providers that would list trainers, including the
specific expertise in the are of cultural diversity/competency. This
directory should be made available to all providers and updated with reasonable
frequency.
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We advocate that ASAP includes in its PEER
REVIEW process a mechanism for gauging whether systems are in place to
address the needs of the ethnic communities in the programs being
reviewed.
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We recommend that OASAS and ASAP continually
explore funding streams that would lend financial support to programs
for their efforts to enhance services in the areas of cultural diversity
and competency.
