Developing cultural competence in addiction services: the role of clinical leadership

Abstract

Community addiction services must offer treatment to all members of the community, even hard-to-reach groups, such as those from ethnic communities, who are often underrepresented in these services. The commissioning cycle and a reduction in resources has affected how services engage these patients.This article explores how cultural competence and the clinical leadership role can support innovations that welcome hard-to-reach patients. Small-scale innovations, such as the translation of service leaflets, could improve accessibility to addiction services for these patients and provide a template for future initiatives with other hard-to-reach groups.