Cultural Responsiveness of Drug User Treatment Programs: Approaches to Improvement

Abstract

Many drug user treatment programs have difficulty recruiting, retaining, and successfully treating minority clients. Coupled with the fact that cultural diversity among clients is likely to increase, this consideration makes it critical that programs take steps to increase their responsiveness to minority clients. Among the steps which administrators and clinicians recommend that programs take are conducting a needs assessment; implementing special outreach approaches; hiring additional minority staff; providing staff training and education in cultural sensitivity; and identifying client cultural characteristics at intake.

Key Words:

• Cultural sensitivity
• Multicultural clients
• Drug user treatment