Cultural Competence Training Best Practices for Employment Support Professionals Serving People with Disabilities...

The purpose of this scoping review was to (a) identify culturally competent best practices that can be used to inform the training of employment support service providers (e.g., vocational rehabilitation, substance abuse, and mental health counselors) who serve people with disabilities (PWD) with co-occurring opioid or substance use disorders from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds, (b) identify gaps in the literature, and (c) present practice, research and policy recommendations. An in-depth search of five databases was conducted to identify eligible studies for this review. The analysis yielded four broad themes: disability language and linguistic competency, increasing awareness of your client's cultural identity, culturally competent workplace recruitment and retention, and pre-service graduate education. One major research gap identified was the lack of current training models designed to equip providers with cultural and linguistic competency skills and knowledge needed to serve members of these target populations. Future research may be warranted to address the need for additional-employment support service provider training models.