Background-Evidence suggests that minority populations have lower levels of attendance and retention in mental health care than non-Latino whites. Patient activation and empowerment interventions may be effective in increasing minority patients' attendance and retention.

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The authors developed and delivered a brief patient activation intervention (PAI) that sought to facilitate physician-patient communication. The intervention was designed to assist low-income, racial/ethnic minority users of community health centers in building skills and confidence asking questions. The PAI takes 8 to 10 minutes to deliver and consists of five steps that can be carried out by individuals with minimal formal medical training. A total of 252 patients waiting to see their physician participated in the intervention and completed the follow-up semistructured interview after their health care visit. The authors describe the intervention and the results of their qualitative evaluation of patient's responses. Overall, the PAI was valued by patients, appeared to add to patients' satisfaction with the health care they received, and was feasible to implement in the primary care setting. Furthermore, findings from this study provide indirect insight regarding factors that influence minority patient's question-asking behavior that include patient's attitudes, social factors, and patient's self-efficacy in question formulation.