Using the Cultural Formulation Interview to Support Recovery
SAMHSA Recovery to Practice Webinar
When:Tuesday, June 21 from 1:00 p.m. ET- 2:00 p.m. ET.
Culture influences every aspect of care in behavioral health practice. Cultural context frames communication from how individuals describe their situation and what they expect from treatment to how practitioners understand and interpret the stories of the people they see. This webinar will introduce participants to the Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI), an evidence-based tool used to guide practitioners in understanding the worldviews of people seeking services. The presenters will describe the origins of the CFI and how it is used with individuals and families to create a culturally rich mutual understanding of concerns. Scenarios will illustrate how use of this structured tool increases practitioner skills in recovery-oriented practices, including the ability to engage people in personally meaningful, collaborative plans that identify and enhance cultural strengths and are embedded in the person’s or family’s unique worldview.
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Featured Presenters:
Dr. Roberto Lewis-Fernandez, MD
Dr. Roberto Lewis-Fernandez, MD is Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and Director of the New York State (NYS) Center of Excellence for Cultural Competence and the Hispanic Treatment Program at NYS Psychiatric Institute. He is also Lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard University. Dr. Lewis-Fernandez’s research focuses on developing clinical interventions and novel service-delivery approaches to help overcome disparities in the care of underserved cultural groups. His work centers on improving treatment engagement and retention in mental health and physical health care by persons with anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and other serious mental illnesses. He also studies the way culture affects individuals’ experience of mental disorder and their help-seeking expectations, including how to explore this cultural variation during the psychiatric evaluation. He led the development of the DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview, a standardized method for cultural assessment for use in mental health practice, and the Principal Investigator of its international field trial, conducted in Canada, India, Kenya, the Netherlands, Peru, and the United States.
Oscar Jiménez-Solomon, MPH
Oscar Jiménez-Solomon, MPH, is a Senior Staff Associate (Officer of Research) in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and Research Coordinator of the NYS Center of Excellence for Cultural Competence at NYS Psychiatric Institute. Mr. Jiménez-Solomon was born and raised in Peru. His research focuses on consumer empowerment in the areas of culture, language access, and financial wellness. He is currently the Principal Investigator of a project funded by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) STAR Center to develop empowerment videos and tools for youth experiencing first episode-psychosis and their families. Mr. Jimenez-Solomon has co-authored book chapters, reports, papers, and training manuals in the area of mental and public health in the United States and Latin America. He received a Master of Public Health at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Bachelor of Sociology at Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). Mr. Jiménez-Solomon’s past roles include Director of Community and Economic Development at the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS), Research Staff Associate at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, International Consultant at the United Nations Population Fund, and Research Associate at the PUCP Department of Social Sciences. He is a board member of the American Society for Hispanic Psychiatry.