Presentation Information
[SY-37-03]A sampling of recent and ongoing research on the Cultural Formulation Interview
*Roberto Lewis-Fernandez (Columbia/NYS Psychiatric Institute(United States of America))
Keywords:
cultural assessment,social determinants of health,individual cultural identity,person-centered evaluation
Without a person-center assessment of the relevant cultural aspects of the person’s identity, illness representations, treatment expectations, and social-structural impacts on vulnerabilities and resources, mental health practice often lacks the information to provide effective treatment. The Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) is a protocol that guides clinicians in eliciting information from people seeking health care about their and their families/friends’ views of their situation, cultural identity, past experiences of help seeking, and expectations for future care. It can be used as a culturally sensitive method to engage care recipients in mental health services and orient a more comprehensive evaluation and treatment plan. This presentation will review some recently published studies on the CFI that address multiple person-centered uses of this tool: how it elicits more granular descriptions of the person’s cultural identity than demographically organized self-report checklists; how it can obtain information on the person’s social-structural stressors, supports, and determinants of health; and how it guides conversations on the person’s level of trust in the clinical relationship in the early stages of treatment. Other studies planned or currently underway will also be described: on the impact of the CFI vs. usual care in reducing the misdiagnosis of schizophrenia and enhancing treatment engagement and response in individuals being evaluated for a psychotic disorder in a community mental health clinic; on its role orienting the evaluation and psychotherapy of US veterans with PTSD; and on the value of CFI use in helping neurology clinicians understand the impact of culture on someone’s clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment.