Rehabilitation Specialists & Cultural Competency: examining opportunities and barriers in global service delivery & research.

Within this context of shifting demographics, our health care system must strive to provide treatment and services that are culturally appropriate and effective. Providers cannot deliver health care without considering differences in ethnicity, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, language, education, ability, and geographic background. Health care providers need to be sensitive toward people of differing, but not all educators feel confident when teaching cultural issues. Culture competence has been proposed as a way to narrow healthcare disparities nationwide. The International ISIG Service Delivery Task Force introduced a brief online survey to the general ACRM membership, in an attempt to better understand the needs, opportunities, of rehabilitation specialists, and the barriers they encounter when working with clients and families of diverse background.