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Abstract: 

Although evidence-based practice in mental and behavioral health continues to garner increasing policy and empirical support, uptake among practitioners remains low. One of the barriers to widespread, adherent implementation of EBP is the concern that the standardization of practice conflicts with a culturally competent approach. Cultural adaptation frameworks, however, can be time-consuming and thus impractical for agencies and individual therapists to use. We propose a Cultural Enhancement Model that focuses on engagement issues at the community, agency, therapist, and client level to balance the demands of model adherence, cultural competency, and feasibility. This paper describes the model and its application to enhance the Family Integration Transitions (FIT) program to better serve first- and second-generation Latino families.

Keywords: Evidence-based practices, cultural competency, adaptation, Family Integrated Transitions, engagement

Affiliations:  1: Univ of Washington School of Medicine; 2: Univ of Washington School of Medicine.