Cultural Resources for Health Professionals

Culture is an integral part of the Department of Psychiatry. It is an overarching theme for virtually all the work done by faculty and staff, from education and training to research to clinical services to the myriad of community and university endeavors, cross-cutting each of these areas of scholarship. The Department has several cultural competence initiatives that span cultural diversity, including ethnocultural identification, age, and rural health disparities. These initiatives are outlined in more detail below. The clinical activities that emphasize culture include clinical services, education, and training. In addition, the Department of Psychiatry’s robust program of research includes studies of mental health and culture, as well as ethnocultural health disparities research training in these topics: suicide and violence prevention, substance use prevention, aging and cognition, women’s health, and rural and Native Hawaiian health.

The Department has published a number of important texts on culture and mental health: