The Organizational Multicultural Competence Assessment (OMCA): A tool to assess an organization's multicultural competence and adherence to the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Healthcare (the National CLAS Standards).

Behavioral health organizations must respond to the needs of increasing numbers of multicultural populations, as the world population continues to diversify. The goal of this research was to develop a measure to assess the multicultural competence of a behavioral health agency using a quick and efficient but comprehensive strategy that utilizes input from multiple staff members. The Organizational Multicultural Competence Assessment (OMCA) was developed through a review of existing cultural competence assessment measures and item generation from researchers and policy makers.

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Use of State-Operated Inpatient Substance Abuse Services, 2004-2005 Versus 2010-2011.

Objective: This study examined ethnic-racial differences in referral source, length of stay, legal status, and diagnosis in state-operated substance abuse inpatient treatment in Connecticut.

Methods: Data from 2004-2005 (N=1,484) and from 2010-2011 (N=4,529) were investigated with regression analyses.

Results: At both time points, African Americans were more likely than other groups to be referred by criminal justice sources, Hispanics were more likely than whites to be referred by other sources, and whites were more likely than African Americans to have emergency-crisis admissions; length of stay was shorter for Hispanics than for whites and longer for African Americans than for whites and Hispanics; and Hispanics were less likely than other groups to have an alcohol use disorder, more likely than other groups to have a drug use disorder, and more likely than whites to receive a discharge diagnosis of a personality disorder from cluster B.

An Evaluation of Racial and Ethnic Health Differences in State Mental Health Inpatient Services: 2002-2005 Versus 2010-2011.

This study analyzed racial-ethnic differences previously documented in the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services mental health inpatient system across two time periods (2002-2005 and 2010-2011). Comparisons of logistic regression analyses from the two time periods showed that, at time 1, significant racial-ethnic differences were found for referral by other sources (e.g.