Cultural Diversity and Culturally Competent Rehabilitation: A Narrative Review

Abstract

As societies across the world grow increasingly multicultural through migration, urbanisation and internal mobility, rehabilitation services face mounting pressure to deliver care that responds to the linguistic, ethnic and sociocultural realities of the people they serve. This narrative review synthesises current scholarship on cultural diversity and cultural competence within the rehabilitation disciplines, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language pathology, audiology and psychosocial rehabilitation. It examines how cultural background shapes help-seeking behaviour, therapeutic engagement and functional outcomes; identifies the principal barriers and facilitators to culturally competent practice; and appraises strategies such as culturally adapted assessment, workforce diversification, professional interpreting and organisational accountability. The review argues that cultural competence is best understood not as a fixed individual attribute but as a continuous, structural and relational commitment, and that cultural and clinical competence are complementary rather than competing goals. Particular attention is given to the implications of India's own internal diversity for rehabilitation education and service design. The paper closes by outlining priorities for research and practice