[Conceptions of "transcultural competence" and their relevance for the psychiatric-psychotherapeutic care. Results of an interdisciplinary literature review]

Abstract

The concept of transcultural competence is increasingly discussed in Germany as a requirement for providing adequate psychiatric-psychotherapeutic care for persons with a migration background. To this day, understanding of this concept is heterogeneous. This overview aims at systemizing existing definitions of transcultural competence in psychology, medicine and related fields to improve understanding of the term in practice. 130 German and English language scientific papers were analyzed and were evaluated qualitatively with grounded theory method. The analysis produced 3 approaches: a technological approach, a component approach and a positioning-and-attitude approach. The suggested categorization of the understandings of the term transcultural competence allows for a detailed overview of the current definitions of this term and thus provides criteria for a better evaluation of implemented transcultural competence in fields of psychiatric-psychotherapeutic care.