The BC-SCORES Cultural and Linguistic Competence team is committed to ensuring youth’s mental health, substance abuse, and juvenile justice services are delivered in a culturally and linguistically relevant manner and that the System of Care responds to the unique cultural attributes of its diverse population.

·         Culture refers to folkways, mores, traditions, customs, formal and informal networks, rituals, dialects, and so forth. Linguistic competence refers to the capacity of professionals to address language barriers faced by limited English speaking populations in the health care delivery system. (Cultural Competency: A Practical Guide for Mental Health Service Providers, Delia Saldaña, Ph.D., 2001).

·         BC-SCORES recognizes culture is more diverse than race or ethnicity. It incorporates a host of perspectives that include geography, gender, class, language, age, religion, and disability. Every understanding of cultural reality comes from a unique point of view based on an individual's life experiences in the context of the cultural groups in which he/she moves. (Through the Lens of Culture: Building Capacity for Social Change and Sustainable Communities, National Community Development Institute, 2003).

·         Cultural Competency translates to overall change in system culture, coordination of services and standards of practice, including development (planning, governance, outreach, and human resources), clinical standards (access, triage, care planning, discharge, linguistics), and provider competency.

BC-SCORES understands that effective Systems of Care respect culture and difference.

Cultural Competence:

·          May be the most important factor in the accessibility of services by people of color;

·          Will be responsive to cultural differences;

·          Recognizes the unique cultural background of each family;

·          Proactively addresses the disparities in access; Provides appropriate services/equitable outcomes.

·         Systems may rely upon the use of translators and interpreters to translate for limited English proficient clients and, whenever necessary, translate documents for these populations in communities.