A group of patient programs at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center that focus on ethnic and cultural diversity has received a top honor from the American College of Psychiatrists.
The 1999 Award for Creativity in Psychiatric Education was awarded to the SFGHMC Ethnic/Minority Psychiatric Inpatient Programs, which provide special services to patients who are Asian, Latino, black, gay/lesbian, have AIDS or related diseases, or are women.
The programs are recognized nationwide as the only ones of their kind to focus on the impact of culture and ethnicity on the way mentally ill patients experience and deal with their distress.
Francis G. Lu, M.D., UC San Francisco clinical professor of psychiatry and director of the Cultural Competence and Diversity Program in the SFGHMC Department of Psychiatry, initiated the first program in the group in 1980--the Asian Focus Program--and has been instrumental in development of the others. Robert L. Okin, M.D., chief of psychiatry at SFGHMC, oversees direction of the programs.
In addition to their patient service component, the programs provide educational training in cultural psychiatry to health care professionals.
"While focusing on different populations, the programs share a commitment to providing care that is sensitive to the cultural background and particular needs of their patients, to training others to deliver such care, and to advancing research into the psychiatric treatment of these ethnic/minority groups," Lu said.
SFGHMC is affiliated with UCSF and is part of the Community Health Network of San Francisco, the City's integrated health care delivery system that also includes Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, 18 community health centers, and home health and jail health services.