Cultural Safety Framework for LGBTQIA+ Communities

Abstract

Although many readers may be most familiar with the term cultural sensitivity or cultural competence, this book instead uses cultural safety to frame best practice recommendations. The idea of cultural sensitivity focuses on the basic awareness and willingness to learn about cultural differences. The term cultural competence is perhaps what most clinicians are familiar with, and it is often used to describe provider awareness about the beliefs, values, and norms for various diverse groups of people and how we provide patient-centered care that respects differences in values, preferences, and needs. Cultural safety, however, reframes the cultural sensitivity and cultural competence approaches by building personal awareness and emphasizing patient-centered care. This chapter lists three ways that cultural safety differs from cultural competence. It helps the reader to identify the five tenets of cultural safety that will be used throughout this book to frame care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) people. The chapter self-reflects on personal biases that prevent provision of culturally safe care. It lists clinical care modifications supporting the cultural safety for LGBTQIA+ patients. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)