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Emergency care avoidance: ethnic matching and participation in minority-serving programs
L R Snowden1, T W Hu, J M Jerrell
1School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Community Mental Health Journal
|October 1, 1995
Summary
Ethnic and language matching with clinicians reduced emergency mental health service use. Client program characteristics, particularly serving a higher proportion of minority clients, were also significant factors in reducing emergency visits.
Area of Science:
- Health Services Research
- Mental Health Services
- Cultural Competency in Healthcare
Background:
- Emergency service utilization in mental health care presents a significant burden on healthcare systems.
- Understanding factors influencing emergency service use is crucial for improving patient outcomes and resource allocation.
- Ethnic and linguistic concordance between clients and providers is often cited as a factor in healthcare access and quality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the relationships between ethnic matching, language concordance, program characteristics, and emergency service use in a county-level mental health system.
- To determine the relative importance of provider-client matching versus program-level factors in reducing emergency mental health service utilization.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of county mental health service system data.
- Examination of client records to assess ethnic and linguistic matching with clinicians.
- Analysis of program-level data, including the proportion of minority clients served.
- Statistical modeling to identify predictors of emergency service visits.
Main Results:
- Clients matched with an ethnically similar clinician proficient in their preferred language had fewer emergency service visits.
- Program characteristics, specifically the proportion of minority clients served by a program, were as significant, if not more so, than ethnic or language matching.
- Clients in programs with a higher proportion of minority clients demonstrated reduced emergency service utilization.
Conclusions:
- Both individual-level matching (ethnicity, language) and program-level factors (minority client proportion) are associated with reduced emergency mental health service use.
- Minority-oriented mental health programs may play a critical role in mitigating emergency service reliance.
- Further research is warranted to explore the impact of matching and to support minority-focused mental health initiatives.