In health care, cultural and linguistic competence is the ability of providers and organizations to understand, respect, and effectively respond to their patients’ cultural backgrounds, economic circumstances, beliefs, languages, and values. Culturally and linguistically competent providers can build trust and stronger relationships with patients, improve patient understanding and safety, and reduce errors caused by miscommunication. When patients are provided with culturally and linguistically appropriate information, they are better able to prevent chronic diseases and create healthier outcomes for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Building the capacity of health professionals and organizations to address cultural and linguistic barriers to care is both a top priority and a congressionally mandated responsibility of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH). Through the development of evidence-based resources and provider-focused education, HHS OMH is working to improve health care delivery for all Americans and support the Administration’s mission to Make America Healthy Again.
Think Cultural Health
Think Cultural Health (TCH) is an HHS OMH initiative and learning platform dedicated to improving health care communication, patient engagement, and Americans’ health. TCH offers free continuing education opportunities, information, resources, and more to help public health, health care, and other health professionals provide services that are responsive to the cultural beliefs, values, backgrounds, and linguistic needs of the individuals and communities they serve.
Visit Think Cultural Health
TCH offers free continuing education opportunities, information, and resources for public health, health care, and other health professionals.
The National CLAS Standards
HHS OMH developed the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Health Care, also known as the National CLAS Standards, to improve the quality of services patients receive. The National CLAS Standards are a comprehensive set of 15 actionable steps that create a blueprint for health care professionals to provide CLAS.
View the standards below or visit Think Cultural Health for more information on CLAS and the National CLAS Standards.
Principal Standard
- Provide effective, understandable, and respectful quality care and services that respond to cultural health beliefs and practices, languages, health literacy, and other communication needs.
Governance, Leadership, and Workforce
- Advance and sustain organizational governance and leadership that promotes CLAS through policy, practices, and allocated resources.
- Recruit, promote, equip, and support a governance, leadership, and workforce that respond to the digital, cultural and language needs of the population.
- Educate and train governance, leadership, and workforce regularly on CLAS practices and resources.
Communication and Language Assistance
- Offer language assistance to individuals who have limited English proficiency and/or other communication needs, at no cost to them, to facilitate timely access to all health care and services.
- Inform all individuals, in writing and orally, of the availability of language assistance services in English and other languages that serve their linguistic needs.
- Ensure the competence of individuals providing language assistance through training and certification, when available, recognizing that the use of untrained individuals and/or minors as interpreters should be avoided and discouraged.
- Provide easy-to-understand digital and print materials and signage in the languages commonly used by the populations in the service area.
Engagement, Continuous Improvement, and Accountability
- Establish culturally and linguistically appropriate goals, policies, and management accountability, and infuse them throughout the organization’s planning and operations.
- Conduct ongoing assessments of the organization’s integration of CLAS-related activities and measures into quality improvement activities.
- Collect and maintain accurate and reliable demographic data to monitor and evaluate the impact of CLAS on health outcomes and to inform service delivery.
- Conduct regular assessments of community health assets and needs and use the results to plan and implement services that respond to the cultural and linguistic needs of populations in the service area.
- Partner with the community to design, implement, and evaluate cultural and linguistically appropriate practices and impact.
- Create culturally and linguistically appropriate processes to identify, prevent, and resolve conflicts, complaints, or grievances.
- Communicate the organization’s progress in implementing and sustaining CLAS to all stakeholders, constituents, and the general public.
Date Last Reviewed: May 2026