While Elder Abuse is common in all three cultures, Ethnic variations in caregiving exist in Elderly care. Even though there are common themes among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanic elderly care, each culture deals with it in different ways.
Each culture approaches caregiving for the elderly with dementia differently. There are cultural variations in the uses of formal services, elder abuse and care of elderly family members. Most notable among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanic exist different ideals and family values with regards to elderly care and family obligations. Research has shown that ethnic variations in caregiving exist.
However, less attention has been given to the common experience of caregiving, across ethnic group affiliation. Semi-structured interviews with African American, Caucasian American, and Latino caregivers were conducted to understand the common experience of caregiving (Ayalong, 2004).
First, the elderly population within the United States is growing. All cultures are faced with caring for their elderly.
Census data as of 1930 to 1990 shows “the U.S. elderly population increased from 5% to 13% of the total U.S. population. With continued population aging, those older than 65 are projected to increase to 20% of the total U.S. population by the year 2050” (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000).
The Essay on Does the World Still Care About American Culture
Pells – Does the World Still Care About American Culture? What does Pells mean by the statement, “American culture used to be the elephant in everyone’s living room”? “Elephant in the room” is a term used for an obvious truth that is going unaddressed or being ignored. It also applies to an obvious problem that everyone is ignoring or no one wants to state it. In the ...
Although there are common themes among the issues faced by the seniors in each culture, there are notable differences in the way each culture approach caregiving for these senior members of society. Among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanic the care for dementia among the elderly is one area in which differences can be observed.
Dementia is not culture specific and can happen in any culture. In her research Ayalong observed that there are common themes among the three cultures that were studied. Ayalong stated that dealing with dementia or Alzheimer and associated family conflicts that arise as a result, along with the use of formal services were a few of the common theme which was observed by the caregivers in each culture. Underutilization of formal services is pervasive among Caucasian American, African American, and Latino caregivers (Cox, 1999; Haley et al., 1996; Hinton & Levkoff, 1999).
However, most research suggests that relative to Caucasian Americans, ethnic minorities underutilize mental health services. Wood and Parham (1990) found that Caucasian American caregivers attended support groups more frequently than African Americans. In addition, relative to Caucasians Americans, older African Americans are less likely to use nursing home services (Miller, McFall, & Campbell, 1994).
