Cultural Responsiveness in Long-Term-Care Case Management

Moving Beyond Competence

Werkmeister-Rozas, Lisa PhD, LCSW
Klein, Waldo C. PhD, MSW

Lisa Werkmeister-Rozas, PhD, LCSW, is an assistant professor at the School of Social Work, University of Connecticut. Waldo C. Klein, PhD, MSW, is a professor at the School of Social Work, University of Connecticut.

Correspondence regarding this article should be directed to Lisa Werkmeister-Rozas, PhD, LCSW, School of Social Work, University of Connecticut. E-mail: [email protected]

Care Management Journals 10(1):p 2-7, Winter 2009.

Case mangers must deal with the ever-changing makeup of their client population as well as those who provide managed services to these clients. There is great ethnocultural diversity in the elder population, and statistics contend that it will only increase with time. Similarly, the majority of long-term-care providers have been consistently female and of color. Providing culturally competent services becomes more complex when long-term-care providers and clients possess different identities, countries of origins, and social statuses. This article examines a framework that addresses the complex, multidimensional, and bidirectional process that occurs between providers and consumers of any cultural makeup called cultural responsiveness.