Cultural Competemility Training and Use of a Standardized Assessment Tool in Reducing Misdiagnosis of Black Patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders and Psychotic Disorders.

This article focuses on a quality improvement project aimed at reducing racial disparities in the diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum and psychotic disorders, particularly the overdiagnosis among Black patients. The project implemented Cultural Competemility Training (CCT) based on Campinha-Bacote's Process of Cultural Competemility in the Delivery of Health care Services (PCCDHS) model and introduced the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS-24) as a standardized diagnostic tool. Following training, healthcare providers demonstrated increased cultural competence and used the BPRS-24 in 87.5% of assessments, leading to a 40.6% overall rate of diagnostic reclassification, with similar rates among Black and non-Black patients. The findings suggest that combining cultural competemility training with standardized assessment tools can improve diagnostic accuracy and help address racial biases in psychiatric care.