Cultural Competence in Health Services | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Clalit HMO, East Jerusalem – adapting clinics to Arabic speaking patients – January 5, 2009

In a previous blog we reported on the meeting of the Clalit steering committee on cultural competence in serving Arabic-speaking patients. Today we held a larger meeting where we discussed the mapping that the JICC performed at the Sheikh Jerakh clinic, as well as the draft work plan for the future.

At the end of the meeting subgroups were formed for implementing the various parts of the plan, including translation services, setting issues (e.g., Arabic signage and responding to relevant cultural needs at the clinics), staff trainings etc.

jicc2014-04-05T17:29:02+00:00January 5th, 2009|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Palestinians/Arabs|

Clalit HMO Update on Adapting Clinics to Ethiopian Patients – Dec 8 2008

Following previous meetings on adapting Clalit’s clinics to Ethiopian patients, the representatives of Clalit and the JICC discussed today the detailed plan for cultural competence in serving the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem. The meeting was very fruitful, and based on many insights, a detailed workplan is currently being formulated. First training will be held in February in the Ir Ganim neighborhood, followed by similar two-days trainings in all relevant clinics. In parallel, signage and other adaptations to this community will be applied.

At the meeting we’ve received an update that according to schedule all the relevant clinics are now fully equipped to provide the “Tene Briut” tele-interpretation services in Amharic. It is important to emphasize that unfortunately, up to this point, this is the only tele-interpretation service existing in Israel in any language!. It is our hope to find the means to create tele-interpretation services in additional languages, such as Arabic and Russian.

jicc2014-04-05T17:11:59+00:00December 8th, 2008|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts|

First Training to Municipality Absorption Neighborhood Workers

The Jerusalem Municipal Absorption Authority employs about ten Absorption Neighborhood Workers in the city. Their role is to assist new immigrants (Olim) who live in their neighborhoods with all the daily matters that those are typically challenged with. While these workers are usually new immigrants themselves, they cannot, of course, know and understand the cross-cultural issues relating to all immigrant communities that live in their neighborhoods

The municipal Absorption Authority, which is responsible for the recruitment, training and mentoring of the Absorption Workers, approached the JICC to conduct a training on cultural competency to this staff. The goals of the training are to leverage their work by making them more aware to cultural issues and to encourage them to become the voice for cultural competence in their neighborhoods. Our hope is that in time they will encourage local Community Councils and centers, local government agencies and branches, health clinics etc. to become cultural competent. Practically, this means that the scope of their influence will expand to include all identities living in their service area and not only new immigrants.

Today, November 19, we conducted the first training in the series that provided the Absorbtion Workers with an introduction to the field of cultural competence, including examples from health and many other applications relevant to their daily work. At the end of the training participants expressed their satisfaction with the level and scope of the training and that they look forward to future sessions. The rest of the training will cover topics such as cross-cultural communication, tools for cultural competence, case studies and simulations, and stages for making an organization cultural competent.

jicc2014-07-11T08:37:46+00:00November 19th, 2008|Blog, Courses, Cross-Cultural Communication Trainings, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Cultural Competence in the Workplace, Gishurim - Israel Community Mediation Centers, New Immigrants, Outside Jerusalem, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Clalit HMO Update on Adapting Clinics to Ethiopian Patients

Following a steering committee meeting on adapting Clalit’s clinics to Ethiopian patients, a meeting was held between the head of the Clalit committee and the JICC to define the main components of the cultural competence in health program in the city, as well as first steps. Clalit is the main HMO serving Jerusalem’s residents. One of the first steps decided upon was to ensure that the Amharic teleinterpretation service of “Tene Briut” would be expanded to all Clalit’s clinics in Jerusalem. The JICC introduced this service in Jerusalem, and the Clalit’s Talpiot clinic, serving around 500 Ethiopian patients, was the first to adopt it. Today, we were informed that permission was granted by Clalit to incorporate the service in the other three relevant clinics in Jerusalemite as well as in four suburban clinics that serve the Ethiopian community. The teleinterpretation service provides a major improvement in health care for this community, which suffers greatly from language and cultural barriers.

jicc2014-04-05T05:18:07+00:00November 14th, 2008|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts|

Municipal Elections in Jerusalem!!!

Yesterday, Jerusalem’s secular mayoral candidate, Mr. Nir Barkat, won the municipal election with 52% of the vote. His ultra-orthodox opponent, Rabbi Meir Porush, was close behind with 43%. The Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center cannot, of course, support any of the candidates, as one of our most important functions is the enabling of fair dialogue and negotiations between the many identities in the city. The members of the JICC board, representing different groups in the city – Palestinians and Jews, ultra-orthodox and members of other religious denominations – supported various candidates.

Nevertheless, most of the 31 members of the newly elected City Council are new to their role, and they too represent many different identity groups and attitudes. It is our role to help them create effective and profound dialogue amongst themselves, as well as between them and the Jerusalem residents.

The JICC aspires to promote Jerusalem as a Culturally Competent City – and we hope to convince the new Council to adopt this approach. We will try to enhance the impact of the Jerusalem Employment Coalition on the decisionmaking process in the municipality. The municipality is a member of the coalition, which was founded and is facilitated by the JICC. In addition, the JICC has already started a dialogue process between main ultra-orthodox and non-ultra orthodox groups touching upon the issue of living together in Jerusalem. We would like the municipality to be a partner to the thinking process and to the implementation of the outcomes.

In recent years, we attempted to improve the dialogue between the municipality and the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, most of whom feel alienated from the municipality and therefore ban the elections. We hope that this dialogue will now intensify and result in better infrastructure and services in East Jerusalem.

To conclude, we see the elections’ results as an opportunity for positive change in the city, hopefully through the cooperation of the many rival groups at the City Council. To respond to these new challenges and opportunities the JICC will shortly initiate meetings with City Council members.

jicc2014-04-04T12:54:41+00:00November 12th, 2008|Blog, Citywide Religious Denominations Dialogue, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Cultural Competence in the Workplace, Employment, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, On Jerusalem, Palestinians/Arabs, The Jerusalem Employment Coalition, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Clalit HMO, Kiryat Yovel – adapting clinics to Ethiopian patients – November 6, 2008

Today, a steering committee of Kupat Holim Clalit (the largest Israeli Health Management Organization), the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center and the Jerusalem Foundation met for the first time. This committee focuses on cultural competency of the Clalit HMO when serving the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem (read more about this project here).

The meeting took place in the Kiryat Yovel clinic, one of the clinics that serve the Ethiopian community. Representatives of most of the relevant clinics attended, as well as Dr. Sarit Avishay, the medical director of the Clalit HMO Jerusalem district. Many cultural issues and appropriate responses were discussed. In general the first important steps in each clinic include providing Amharic tele-interpretation services (of Tene Briut), conducting trainings to staff, communicating with the local Ethiopian community and assigning staff members as Cultural Competency Officers. It was decided that the JICC staff, together with the Clalit staff, would map the main cultural competency issues. The Kiryat Menahem clinic was suggested as the first clinic to undergo pilot training.

Next week the JICC staff will meet with the Clalit committee head who was assigned to promote the first steps of the process.

jicc2017-05-26T20:06:19+00:00November 6th, 2008|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts|

Clalit HMO, East Jerusalem – adapting clinics to Arabic speaking patients – November 2, 2008

Kupat Holim Clalit, who is also the largest Israeli Health Management Organization in East Jerusalem, was the first to join the Jerusalem Cultural Competence in Health Project of the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center and the Jerusalem Foundation. As part of the process two steering committees were formed to tackle cultural competence issues in East Jerusalem and in the Ethiopian community.

Today the first meeting of the steering committee focusing on East Jerusalem was held in the Sheikh Jerah Clalit HMO clinic. This is the central clinic in East Jerusalem serving around 200,000 people. The committee drafted a list of many challenges in this clinic and in other parts of the East Jerusalem health system. It was decided that the JICC staff, together with Clalit staff, would map the main cultural competency issues in the Sheikh Jerah clinic towards the next meeting. In parallel, we will examine some of the issues related to Arabic-speaking patients who are sent to experts in West Jerusalem, most of them are Hebrew-speaking Jews. Language was found to be an important barrier, but also other cultural barriers were identified as central to the quality of health care.

Next meeting of the committee will proceed with the planning of the cultural competence project in the Clalit HMO.

jicc2014-04-04T12:54:43+00:00November 2nd, 2008|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Palestinians/Arabs|

Medical Interpretation Training – Alyn – October 30, 2008

Today, the first ever medical interpretation training in Jerusalem has commenced (see report on YNET, in Hebrew). This training is part of our efforts, together with the Alyn Hospital’s management, to transform Alyn into a cultural competent hospital, probably the first of its kind in Israel. The work with Alyn is a component of the Jerusalem Cultural Competence in Health Project initiated by the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center and the Jerusalem Foundation. The three days training is offered to ten staff members of Alyn hospital and four national service volunteers from Hadassah Ein-Karem Hospital. The cultural competence program in Alyn also includes training to medical, para-medical and non-medical staff (a pilot training was held a month ago; improving the hospital setting and signage towards different identities; raising awareness about these issues in the hospital; and appointing staff who will be responsible for promoting cultural competency throughout the hospital. The cooperation of the Alyn management in the process is of great help.

Alyn Medical Interpretation Training November 2008

The medical interpretation training encompasses theoretical lectures on translation and interpretation, presented by Prof. Miriam Schlesinger and Ms. Michal Schuster from the Bar-Ilan University, simulations, and language-specific training on medical terms and usage, in this case in Arabic, Russian and Amharic. The Alyn hospital currently formalizes regulations on how to effectively utilize its trained staff as interpreters.

Alyn Medical Interpretation Training November 2008

jicc2014-04-05T05:03:44+00:00October 30th, 2008|Blog, Courses, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services|

Ethiopian Community Synagogue – Mediation meeting, Talpiot, October 2, 2008

After a seven-year struggle, the Ethiopian community in Talpiot at last got a synagogue. As a result of the community dialogue project, facilitated by the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center and Mosaica in Talpiot, the Ethiopian community received the right to use the local Community Hall as a synagogue on weekends and holidays.

When Mosaica and the JICC were summoned to the neighborhood in May 2008, the Ethiopian community was engaged in deep conflict on many different fronts with most of the local governmental and non-governmental agencies. In the Community Dialogue process we managed to bring all these stakeholders to the table and begin to tackle the relevant issues.

The first success was achieved immediately after the first assembly in June 2008. During the meeting several elderly members of the community attested that due to language barriers they do not receive proper care at the local Kupat Holim, the HMO clinic that serves most of the Ethiopians in the neighborhood. The residents described their apprehension in taking medications, not being sure whether the doctors actually understand their explanations and therefore prescribe them with the right treatment. The clinic director, who attended the meeting, decided without delay to make use of a tele-interpretation service in Amharic, provided by Tene Briut [a “basket of health”]. Starting in August 2008, Talpiot’s HMO became the first health service in Jerusalem to use tele-interpretation (in any language).

The next major concern of the Ethiopian community was indeed the synagogue. Surprisingly, during the second assembly in July, a temporary solution was declared for weekends and holidays and in addition a building permit was granted meaning that a permanent venue will be available in 2-3 years time. This fast progression demonstrates the readiness of the sides to achieve a resolution to this issue. In September, with much excitement, the community began praying in the Community Hall. In parallel, additional issues were identified for discussion and resolution through the Community Dialogue path.

However, the happiness about the synagogue was premature. The solution was far from optimal. Time-sharing in a room at the Community Hall, which during weekdays is used by the welfare department as a daycare for kids at risk, was found to be a real challenge, and conflicts emerged around issues such as furniture, prayer books, cleaning, etc. We found ourselves micro-managing a conflict between the Ethiopian community and the daycare.Today, several days after Rosh Hashana prayers, we had a three-hours mediation process, mainly focused on the location of one small cabin holding prayer books… Of course, the cabin was not the real issue of the mediation. Rather we had to untangle many inter-cultural aspects and perceptions, with every potential solution dangerously nearing racism or child neglect… definitely a challenge. Eventually a short-term solution was reached for a few days, with a hope that a better solution will emerge by the end of the week.

We all know that the synagogue, with all the complexities it presents regarding turf issues in the neighborhood, will attract our conflict management skills and resources for quite a while. Our challenge will be to help the many stakeholders using the Community Hall build trust and find stable and mutually acceptable solutions.

jicc2017-05-26T20:06:17+00:00October 2nd, 2008|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Community - Talpiot Community Dialogue, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue|