Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviours, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or professional and enable that system, agency, or professional to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. The word culture is used because it implies the integrated pattern of human behaviour that includes thought, communication, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of a racial, ethnic, religious, or social group. The word competence is used because it implies having the capacity to function effectively. A culturally competent system of care acknowledges and incorporates – at all levels – the importance of culture, the assessment of cross-cultural relations, vigilance towards the dynamics that result from cultural differences, the expansion of cultural knowledge, and the adaptation of services to meet culturally unique needs.

Certainly the description of cultural competence seems idealistic. How can a system accomplish all of these things? How can it achieve this set of behaviours, attitudes, and policies? Cultural competence may be viewed as a goal toward which agencies can strive. Accordingly, becoming culturally competent is a developmental process. No matter how proficient an agency may become, there will always be room for growth. It is a process in which the system of care can measure its progress according to the agency’s achievement of specific developmental tasks. As the tasks are defined the system will be guided toward progressively more culturally competent services. First, it is important for an agency to internally assess its level
of cultural competence.