Cultural Awareness Tool: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Mental Health

To facilitate improvement in the quality of care of service providers in Australia, the Cultural Awareness Tool (CAT) was developed. CAT was designed as a first step in developing cultural competence and is aimed at providing practitioners with general guidance in how to manage clients with mental illness in a more culturally-aware manner. By asking patients specific questions, the tool enhances the practitioners understanding of the patient’s perception of their problem. This guide provides an overview of cultural and linguistic competence in mental health care and includes instructions for how to use CAT in a mental health care setting.