Southern Plains Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center:
Cultural Competency Training (CCT) Project

In the first year, SPIEC is developing strategies for providing cultural competency training (CCT) to University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) College of Public Health (COPH) faculty and staff and Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) staff and officials by interviewing human resources staff regarding the orientation topics, job descriptions and doing brief surveys of a representative number of staff of these two entities. This will be done to establish the baseline of competency on the American Indian population of the SPIEC service area. In addition, focus groups will be held with American Indian tribal representatives to establish the types of information that they deem important to be part of CCT. Additional focus groups will be held with non-Indian providers regarding their perceptions on what training they need in order to provide competent and quality care.

In the second year, the data collected will be analyzed and a draft CCT curriculum will be developed. The curriculum will be piloted and revised based on the outcomes and a draft of the technical assistance manual will be produced. This manual will contain curriculum for presenting facilitated Technical Assistance (TA) to the I/T/U health facilities in planning specific training for facility-specific providers and support staff.

In the last years of the project, up to eight CCTs will be conducted again for the OUHSC COPH and OSDH. Regional TA trainings will be held for area I/T/Us with leadership being the targeted audience.

Point of Contact:
Diana Cournoyer, MEd, Training and Intervention Coordinator
Phone: 405-951-6005 x107
E-mail: diana.cournoyer@ihs.gov