Between 1979 and 1982, hundreds of physicians, nurses, social workers, and clinic administrators traveled to Miami to attend the Cross-Cultural Training Institute (CCTI). An eight-day intensive course held six times and designed and operated by faculty at the University of Miami’s Psychiatry Department, the CCTI promised to equip trainees with the expertise necessary to treat a multiethnic patient population. Preceding decades had seen rising distrust in medical authority, an outcome of powerful social movements that challenged the institutional sources of health disparities. At the same time, postwar migration patterns altered the ethnic makeup of American cities, and many professionals were struggling to make health care accessible and meaningful to diverse populations. The CCTI, drawing on Miami’s unique multicultural environment as well as years of experiments in cross-cultural care, offered a unique opportunity for health professionals to expand their expertise into the realm of culture.
Trainees checked into their hotel on...
University of California Press