The Cultural Ecogram: A Tool for Enhancing Culturally Anchored Shared Understanding in the Treatment of Ethnic Minority Families

Abstract

Ethnic and racial disparities in mental health care continue to exist, highlighting the increasing concern within the realm of clinical practice as to how clinicians are to effectively integrate the central role of culture and context into the treatment delivery process for culturally diverse children and families. The current article presents the Cultural Ecogram—a clinical engagement tool designed to facilitate the development of a culturally anchored shared understanding—as one method that may facilitate clinician-client shared understanding on the client’s cultural, ethnic, and racial context central to the effective implementation of treatments with ethnic minority children and families.