title: Adoption of the National CLAS Standards by State Mental Health Agencies: A Nationwide Policy Analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study reports the extent to which states have adopted the national culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) standards.
  
  
  METHODS
  Officials from public mental health agencies in the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico were contacted between January and June 2016 to obtain information about adoption of CLAS standards in current policies. Each policy was coded through thematic analysis to determine its correspondence with any of the 14 national CLAS standards, which are grouped into three domains.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Officials from 47 states and territories (90%) responded. Eight states (17%) reported adopting all national CLAS standards. Ten (23%) had adopted no CLAS policies, five (12%) had adopted policies under one domain, three (7%) under two domains, and 25 (58%) under all three domains.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most states do not have policies that meet all CLAS standards, raising questions about how CLAS standards should be adopted.
authors.affiliation: The authors are with the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York.
authors.forename: Neil Krishan
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Aggarwal
authors.affiliation: The authors are with the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York.
authors.forename: Kryst
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cedeno
authors.affiliation: The authors are with the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York.
authors.forename: Dolly
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: John
authors.affiliation: The authors are with the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lewis-Fernandez
mesh_terms: D065246:Culturally Competent Care / Q000592:standards*; D006077:Government Agencies / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health / Q000592:standards*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D011050:Policy Making; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D011647:Puerto Rico; D014481:United States
keywords: Cross-cultural issues; Public policy issues