gms | German Medical Science

Background: With almost one quarter of the population having a migration background cultural competence training of mental health care provider have become a growing issue in recent years. In 2016, the Guidelines for Trainings in Inter-/Transcultural Competence for Psychotherapists (von Lersner, Baschin, Wormeck, & Mösko, 2016) have been published to provide quality standards for training concepts and evaluation processes. Since the guideline’s publication only a few training concepts based on the guidelines have been published and no evaluation with a control group design has been conducted in Germany so far. A training concept for psychotherapists in training based on the guidelines with 10 teaching unites of 45 minutes was designed. The training´s main goal was to encourage the development of participant´s cultural sensitive attitude.

Research question: Is a cultural sensitivity training based on the mentioned guidelines effective in enhancing inter-/transcultural competence of psychotherapists in training?

Method: The training was carried out five times in three different training programs for psychotherapists in Germany by two different trainers. The Trainers were licensed psychological psychotherapists with many years of experience in the treatment of patients with a differing cultural background. Trainers were first introduced to the training concept and encouraged to give feedback regarding the concept´s structure and proposed teaching methods. After further revision the two trainers received extensive instructions about the final training concept.

To evaluate the training’s effectiveness we used a mixed-method summative evaluation approach with the following evaluation criteria: Main Criteria (A) inter-/transcultural counseling competence and Subcriteria (B) subjective learning achievement.

Main Criteria A was measured by the Cross-Cultural Competence of Healthcare Professionals (CCCHP; Bernhard et al., 2015). A 2 (pre vs. post) x 2 (cultural sensitive training vs. other psychotherapy related training) mixed design with repeated measure on the first factor was used for examining the main criteria (A). Subcriteria (B) was measured by a general course evaluation questionnaire provided by the Freiburger Ausbildungsinstitut für Verhaltenstherapie (FAVT GmbH) after each training.

Results: The data of four of the five trainings could be included in the analysis so far. Data of the fifth training are currently collected and will afterwards be included in the final analysis. A one-way repeated measured analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to evaluate a change in participant´s cross-cultural competence before and after the training (N = 56). The results of the ANOVA indicated a significant time effect, Wilks´ Lambda = .80, F(1, 55) = 13,74, p < .01, η2 = .20. To test for differences between the intervention and the control group a between-groups ANOVA was performed. The results indicate no significant effect for the full scale, F(1, 105) = 1.01, p = .32., η2 = .01. However, significant effects were found for the subscales Skills F(1, 104) = 4.20, p = .04., η2 = .04 and Knowledge/Awareness F(1, 105) = 16.0, p < .01, , η2 = .13. Qualitative data as well as the data of the general course evaluation (subcriteria B) revealed participant´s overall high satisfaction with the training. However, some participants had wished for more practical applications of the provided training content.

Discussion and practical implications: A one day cultural sensitivity training with 10 teaching units based on the Guidelines for Trainings in Inter-/Transcultural Competence for Psychotherapists (von Lersner et al., 2016) can be effective in enhancing inter-/transcultural competence of psychotherapists in training. Possible improvements of the training concept and parameters of trainings for psychotherapists in training are discussed.