Final National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (<acronym>CLAS</acronym>) in Health Care Published

Final National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health Care Published

The lack of comprehensive standards on culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) in health care has left organizations and providers with no clear guidance on how to provide CLAS in health care settings. In 1997, the OMH undertook the development of national standards to provide a much-needed alternative to the current patchwork of independently developed definitions, practices, and requirements concerning CLAS. The OMH initiated a project to develop recommended national CLAS standards that would support a more consistent and comprehensive approach to cultural and linguistic competence in health care.

Between January-April 2000, recommendations for national standards underwent the national public comment process in which the public reviewed and commented on the standards as well as the complete report. For an index of all documents related to the project access http://www.omhrc.gov/clas/index.htm

The CLAS standards were published in final form in the Federal Register on December 22, 2000, as recommended national standards for adoption or adaptation by stakeholder organizations and agencies. The standards and the public comments from the regional meetings can be found online at http://www.omhrc.gov/clas/indexfinal.htm

A comprehensive final report on the project, National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health Care Final Report, was completed in March 2001. The final report describing 14 individual standards and outlines the development, methodology and analysis undertaken to create the national standards can be found online at: http://www.omhrc.gov/omh/programs/2pgprograms/finalreport.pdf. To view the Executive Summary click here.

You can also request a hard copy of the final report of the project, National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health Care Final Report, by calling the Resource Center at 1-800-444-6472.