Cultural Competency and Gambling

DESCRIPTION
Clock hours/Continuing Education Units: 4.5

This training will focus on the connection between gambling and cultural intelligence. Participants will learn about behavioral health disparities, how to build health equity, and will explore specific techniques and strategies designed to engage and treat people from diverse identities and communities. The training will include didactic as well as interactive exercises designed to engage participants and elicit their input. The training is intended for entry to advanced level.

At the conclusion of this training, participants will be able to:

Describe cultural competency and the need to provide services that are culturally intelligent;
Describe the connection between gambling behaviors and culture;
Describe behavioral health disparities and their impacts on marginalized communities;
Describe health equity and their roles in building health equity.

Dr. Hernández is originally from Puerto Rico, is bilingual and has worked for over 27 years in the health and human service field. He has experience developing, implementing, and evaluating culturally and linguistically competent youth and adult health prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery support programs. Dr. Hernandez is a person in long-term recovery from addiction and is committed to eliminating health disparities by working at the national, state, and local levels. He is currently a Senior Consultant to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, with a focus on Access to Recovery, Recovery Supports, and the Recovery Support Centers. Dr. Hernandez was appointed to SAMHSA Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy steering committee in 2014. He has served as a consultant to several federally-funded initiatives in the areas of behavioral workforce development, HIV/AIDS, addiction prevention and treatment, military service members, their families and TBI and PTSD, and pediatric asthma. Dr. Hernández serves as faculty at the New England School of Addiction Studies and is on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Board for Voluntary Certification of Drug and Alcohol Counselors and the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction recovery (MOA). He received his PhD at the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.