Interventions to enhance culturally informed kindness, empathy and compassion in mental health professionals: rapid review

Aims and method:

Kindness, empathy and compassion are fundamental to effective mental healthcare and are associated with reduced emotional strain and greater professional satisfaction among practitioners. However, most interventions designed to foster these virtues have not sufficiently addressed cultural adaptation, despite its critical role in ensuring care that is relevant and inclusive for diverse populations.

This rapid review aimed to synthesise evidence on empathy-, kindness- and compassion-focused training interventions in mental health and healthcare settings, with particular attention to cultural adaptation, facilitator characteristics and outcome measurement.

A rapid review was conducted to identify culturally informed interventions designed to enhance kindness, empathy and compassion among mental health professionals. Searches were performed in PubMed/MEDLINE and PsycINFO for studies published between 2014 and 2025 using key terms related to ‘mental health professionals’, ‘empathy’, ‘compassion’ and ‘kindness’. This review was prospectively registered on the Open Science Framework (OSF; DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/U6H32).

Results:

The initial search identified 690 records. Following title, abstract and full-text screening, four studies met all inclusion criteria. The interventions were: (a) a 90 min empathy workshop (USA); (b) a 14-session, cross-cultural, competence course (Sweden); (c) an 8-session, trauma-focused cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) programme (Ukraine); and (d) a 4-day emotionally focused therapy externship (6 Spanish-speaking countries). All interventions reported positive outcomes. Significant increases in empathic awareness were observed in the USA (p = 0.019), with qualitative improvements in empathy reported in Sweden. In Ukraine, 69% of participants rated the programme as ‘very’ or ‘extremely helpful’, and 92% reported professional benefit. The Spanish-speaking cohort demonstrated significant gains in perspective-taking (p < 0.001) and empathic concern (p < 0.001).

Clinical implications:

Culturally informed approaches to enhancing kindness, empathy and compassion show promising outcomes among mental health professionals. These findings highlight the importance of integrating cultural responsiveness into virtue-based interventions to foster inclusive, intelligent kindness in global mental health practice.