84. EVALUATION OF A DIDACTIC SESSION ON CULTURAL HUMILITY FOR GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY TRAINEES AND PRACTITIONERS

Abstract

Introduction

Culturally attuned care is crucial in providing effective psychiatric care to a diverse population of older adults and is considered a requirement under demonstrable knowledge in geriatric psychiatry fellowship training per the guidelines of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. However, the availability and tailoring of teaching in culturally attuned psychiatric practice for geriatric populations vary greatly and are often limited. This project aims to address these concerns by administering a didactic session focusing on cultural humility. Cultural humility focuses on deconstructing power imbalance in the patient-physician relationship and committing to lifelong learning and self-reflection that enhances collaboration with patients from diverse backgrounds, acknowledges historical injustices, and promotes equitable care. Cultural humility emphasizes a patient-centered approach where the attitude of physician as student and patient as expert of the patient’s own experience are promoted. This in contrast to cultural competency which may imply that patient diversity and cultures can be mastered within a limited body of knowledge and time, such as impressions about different ethnic groups which in turn may continue to counterproductively foster harmful stereotypes and a narrow, stagnant stance toward caring for patients from different cultural backgrounds.

Methods

We will design a one hour-long didactic to be given to geriatric psychiatry faculty, geriatric psychiatry fellows, and general psychiatry resident trainees following the format shown in Table 1. Pre- and post-session surveys regarding knowledge and self-assessment on aspects relevant to cultural humility using Likert scales will be administered. Surveys will also include open-ended questions on perceived necessity of and objective feedback on didactic session. Learning objectives are as following; after the didactic session, learners will be able to 1) define the key attitudes of cultural humility, 2) discuss at least two ways that historical origins of inequity and discrimination toward different cultural identities impacts mental health of older persons, 3) apply the concept of identity and social location to discuss power dynamics in the patient-physician relationship, 4) identify cultural dimensions of the self and consider how these dimensions impact how the self moves through the world, and 6) show future interest in continuing the practice of cultural humility practice in professional endeavors.

Results

Results are pending as the didactic and pre- and post-didactic surveys will be administered in December, 2024 and all data will be collected by January, 2025 for presentation at AAGP in March, 2025.

Conclusions

Continued efforts are needed to integrate cultural humility training into broader educational frameworks to better serve the needs of a diversifying population of older adults with mental health care needs. We aim to evaluate the effectiveness of a targeted didactic session in enhancing cultural humility among geriatric psychiatry providers and trainees. Limitations include the short-term nature of assessments and potential biases in self-reported data.