Introduction: exploring the relationships among aging, ethnicity, and family dementia caregiving

• Published in: Culture, medicine and psychiatry Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 403 - 413
• Main Authors: Hinton, W L, Fox, K, Levkoff, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Springer Nature B.V 01.12.1999
• Subjects: Adults; African Americans; Aged; Ageing; Aging; Aging - physiology; Alzheimer's disease; Anthropology; Asian Americans; Caregivers; Caregiving; Caring; Chinese Americans; Chinese languages; Community; Cultural differences; Dementia; Dementia - psychology; Demographics; Ethnic Groups - psychology; Ethnicity; Families & family life; Family; Family - psychology; Gerontology; Health care policy; Hispanic Americans; Humans; Idioms; Mental disorders; Mental health; Mental health care; Minority & ethnic groups; Older people; People with disabilities; Psychiatrists; Psychiatry; Psychologists; Qualitative research; Senility; Social factors; Social support; Studies; Support groups; Americas; New York; Netherlands; United States > US
• ISSN: 0165-005X; 1573-076X
• DOI: 10.1023/A:1005514501883

[...]the National Institute on Aging and the Office of Minority Research chose to fund research that examines racial, ethnic and cultural differences in health status and service use.The overarching goal of Harvards Exploratory Center was to inform the development of more effective and culturally-competent care and interventions for ethnic minority elders with dementia and their families. [...]the Center collaborated with two local community agencies in developing, implementing and evaluating caregiver support group models tailored to meet the needs of Chinese and Latino families in Boston (Levkoff et al. 1998).METHODS SHARED ACROSS THE PAPERSThe four papers in this volume of CMP analyze narratives of caregivers of elders with dementia. Approaches to caregiving may be shaped by culturally-based ideas about the caregivers role, idioms of distress or burden, ideas about what constitutes good or bad care, family interactional styles, and views of normal and abnormal aging. Because of the extent of intra-ethnic diversity, culturally-based conceptions of illness, health, and aging may be best regarded as resources that may or may not be salient for a particular family when an elder becomes disabled.At the median level, the focus of research shifts to intra and intergroup processes. [...]the authors wish to thank our Project Officer Marcia G. Ory, Ph.D., M.P.H., Chief, Social Science Research on Aging, Behavioral and Social Research, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, for her commitment and substantial contributions to this Minority Aging and Health Promotion Initiative.NOTES1.