Track 2-2b
Clinical

The Multicultural Curriculum Program at Children’s Hospital Oakland

For the current medical paradigm cultural incompetence has had a disastrous impact on the health of America’s communities as they become increasingly culturally diverse. The demographics of America are rapidly changing, therefore health care providers are more likely to encounter situations outside the framework of their training and experience. They are often ill equipped to address the spectrum of health care needs within the communities they service. Health care planning, development, and delivery often occur in a cultural vacuum. Appropriate information, resources, and education regarding health belief systems, health models, traditional systems, and other health delivery systems are often absent. Thus, it is imperative that the health care provider be equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills, and tools to build new health care paradigms. Culture needs to become woven into the rich fabric of health care.
 The Multicultural Curriculum Program at Children’s Hospital Oakland is a program designed to create a paradigm of health care delivery to the changing focus of our communities. It combines knowledge, reflection, and experience in a dynamic community institutions partnership that has a multifaceted, multidimensional interface for health care.

Barbara C. Staggers, MD, MPH, F.A.A.P.
Director, Adolescent Medicine & Multicultural Affairs
Children’s Hospital Oakland
747 Fifty Second Street
Oakland, CA 94609-1809
Phone: (510) 423-3063/387
Fax: (510) 601-3979

Dr. Barbara Staggers is Director of Adolescent Medicine and Multicultural Affairs at Children’s Hospital Oakland and a member of the National Committee on Adolescence for the American Academy of Pediatrics. She attained her BA in psychology from UC Berkeley, her MD from UC San Francisco, and an MPH in Health Education from UC Berkeley. She completed her Pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital Oakland and her Fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at UC San Francisco. Recipient of numerous honors and awards including a National Child Labor Committee Award, Profiles of Excellence, and a state of California resolution, Dr. Staggers is considered a national authority on high risk youth, urban and minority youth, violence and health care issues of multicultural societies. Happily married and the mother of three, Dr. Staggers credits her success and balance in life to her family. She enjoys karate, ballet, poetry, and music in her free time.  NEXT >

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