Implementation of the Cultural Formulation through a newly developed Brief Cultural Interview: Pilot data from the Netherlands

• Published in: Transcultural psychiatry 2017-02, Vol.54 (1), p.3-22
• Main Authors: Groen, Simon P. N., Richters, Annemiek, Laban, Cornelis J., Devillé, Walter L. J. M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Culturally Competent Care - standards; Ethnopsychology - methods; Female; Humans; Interview, Psychological - standards; Male; Middle Aged; Netherlands; Pilot Projects; Psychometrics - instrumentation; Refugees - psychology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1363-4615; 1461-7471
• DOI: 10.1177/1363461516678342

The Outline for a Cultural Formulation (OCF) has remained underutilized in clinical practice since its publication in the DSM-IV in 1994. In the Netherlands, a Cultural Interview (CI) was developed in 2002 as a tool to facilitate use of the OCF in clinical practice. The time needed to conduct the interview, however, prevented its systematic implementation within mental health institutions. This article presents the development of a shortened and adapted version, the Brief Cultural Interview (BCI), and a pilot study on the feasibility, acceptability, and utility of its implementation with refugee and asylum seeking patients in a Dutch centre for transcultural psychiatry. Results show that the brief version scores better on feasibility and acceptability, while utility for clinical practice remains similar to that of the original CI. These results support the systematic use of the OCF in psychiatric care for a culturally diverse patient population through the application of a relatively brief cultural interview. A secondary finding of the study is that patients’ cultural identity was considered by clinicians to be more relevant in the treatment planning sessions than their illness explanations.