Cathy Carney M'A' CCCSLP, GCM

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Culture, Ethnicity and Aging

• Cathy Carney M.A. CCC-SLP, GCM

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2000 Census

• 29.8 Million Caucasians
• 2.7 Million African Americans
• 1.5 Million Hispanics
• 615,000 Asian Pacifica Islanders
• 137,000 Native Americans or Eskimos

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Cultural Diversity

• City/country of origin
• Food preferences
• Religion, rituals
• Relationship with family and community
• Communication style
• Views on health

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Ethnogenesis

• Model of ethnic relations in which pressures to
  assimilate exist alongside pressures to maintain
  ethnic diversity and identification.
• Much of gerontology studies have focused on the
  middle class whites - racial and ethnic aging
  viewed in terms of deviance from the white
  standards.

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The African American Aged

• About 5 percent of African Americans (1.6 million
  people) is made up of immigrants from Africa and
  the Caribbean.
• Most have come to the United States since 1970

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African Americans

• Median annual income for aged is only 50 of that
  for white males.
• One of every three was in poverty
• Forty percent of those 65 and older considered
  their health to be fair or poor
• Have higher rates of functional limitations than
  whites.
• Life expectancy shorter 64.8 male 72.7 female
• Have 37 over age 65 living with a spouse
  compared to 56 of whites.

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Health care factors of African American

• Fear of illness and its consequences
• Questions about the efficacy of modern medicine
• Mistrust of physicians and hospitals
• Education barriers
• Language barriers
• Transportation
• Victimization and crime

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Views on the value of aging

• Accumulation of wisdom, knowledge, and common
  sense about life comes not only from age but from
  experience of hardship and suffering.
• A creative genius allows African Americans to do
  much with little.
• The ability to accept old age results from their
  belief that old age is a reward in itself.
• Maintain a sense of hope and optimism for a
  better day.

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Religion

• African Americans receive high status and
  respectability in the community as a function of
  the church participation.

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Latino Elderly Population

• 11.1 percent of the population or 29 million
  people
• Next to African Americans they make up largest
  minority.
• Possible they will surpass the African Americans
  by 2015

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Latino Elderly

• Employed at higher levels
• Use welfare less often
• Work in unskilled jobs
• Fail to maintain residence/alien status
• Do not speak English in the home

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Asian Pacific Aged

• Over 10 Million Current population
• Perception they are the Successful Model
  Minority
• Filial Piety honor thy father and thy mother
  often undermined by U.S. Culture

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White House Council on Aging found Older
Asians

• Have problems more intensive and complex than
  general
• Are excluded by cultural barriers from receiving
  rightful benefits.
• Commit suicide at three times the national
  average.
• Among people most neglected by programs
  presumably serving all elderly.

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Native Americans

• Smallest major elderly minority group
• 116,153 American Indian population.
• Only 6 percent of the native American population
  was aged 65 or older.
• Life expectancy shorter than all other racial
  groups

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Socialization

• Process by which human behavior is learned
  through the language and culture into which an
  individual is born.
• Social roles allow people to anticipate or
  predict the behaviors of others in an assigned
  role and to respond or pattern their own
  behaviors accordingly.

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Social roles

• Set of patterned functionally interdependent
  relations between a person and his social circle
  involving duties and rights.
• Anticipatory prior to or in anticipation for
  taking on a new role
• Culture deadlines age by which people think
  certain family transitions ought to occur in
  mens and womens lives.

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• Desocialization refers to the process of learning
  to give up a previously held role.
• Resocialization refers to the process of learning
  new ways to deal with old roles a time goes on.

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• Rites of Passage those rituals performed in
  a culture of society that help individuals move
  from one role in their life to the next.
• Ordered sets regulates the structure and
  dynamics of social life passing from one season
  to another.
• Can provide signals to the rest of society that
  different expectations are appropriate.

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Cultural, ethnic and age contexts

• Biological and environmental factors that are
  typically correlated with chronological age.
  Puberty and menopause
• History graded biological and environmental
  factors experienced by all members of a cultural
  unit at the same time AIDS epidemic Great
  Depression
• Factors that do no affect everyone but can have
  significant effects on particular individuals
  lives death of a family member or winning the
  lottery

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• ACCULTURATION a goal that enables persons of
  all types of backgrounds to function
  successfully by eliminating barriers of racism
  and nativism by promoting social and economic
  opportunities.
• ASSIMILATIONS giving up the strengths of the
  groups identities.

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Quality of life

• Includes both the conditions of life and the
  experience of life
• It is an individual subjective concept.
• Measured the same across generations
• Often measured the same across cultural and
  ethnic backgrounds

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Significance of diversity study

• Ethnic groups often underrepresented in studies
• Comparisons made based on white males (deviance)
• Policy makers need to reflect changes for various
  lifestyles
• Aging ideas/theory needs to be generalizable
  across many cultures.

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Barriers to accessibility

• Lack of awareness
• Different income and asset levels for eligibility
  to different programs
• Different age eligibilities
• Different eligibility criteria within and between
  states
• Lengthy and complex forms (In English)

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• Fear of government programs
• No centralized location in which to apply for
  assistance
• Lack of outreach efforts to inform people about
  programs
• Lack of bilingual personnel and resources
• Lack of transportation to access sites.

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Changing caregiving patterns

• Fear of the government
• Language barriers
• Verification problems
• Living arrangements.

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The role of culture in abuse

• Role of family members
• Family member responsibility for each other
• How family members relate to each other
• How family decisions are made
• How family resources are used and distributed
• How family problems are defined and solved
• How families cope with stress
• If and when family members seek help from outside
  sources.

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Double jeopardy

• The term to reflect the idea that the negative
  effects of aging are compounded among minority
  group members
• Suggests that aged minority group members suffer
  double disadvantage of age and race
  discrimination.

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Aged discrimination/ Comparisons

• Social interaction
• Total family income
• Self assessed health
• Measures of life satisfaction

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Consequences Age Discrimination

• Diverts attention from other public policy
  issues. Poverty, violence, unemployment.
• Produces conflict with generations for scarce
  resources.
• Diminishes confidence in the government and
  diverts attention from long standing issues.

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• We must move to an ethos of care based upon
  emotional and relational qualities of human life.
  Find out about past issues, interests and
  hobbies, etc.
• Being loved, respected to empathetically and
  cared for helps a person feel more whole and
  provides a sense of security and peace.

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Questions

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• For more information
• Association for Gerontology in Higher Education
• 1001 Connecticut Ave NW Suite 410
• Washington D.C. 20036-5504
• [phone]