• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Geriatrics

Geriatrics

Ethnogeriatrics

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Culture Med
    • Ethnogeriatrics Overview
      • Introduction
      • Patterns of Health Risk
      • Fund of Knowledge
      • Assessment
      • Delivery of Care
    • Glossary
    • Interview Strategies
  • Ethno Med
    • Background
    • African American
    • Alaska Native
    • American Indian
    • Asian Indian American
    • Chinese American
    • Filipino American
    • Hawaiian and Pacific Islander
    • Hispanic / Latino American
    • Hmong American
    • Japanese American
    • Korean American
    • Pakistani American
    • Vietnamese American
  • Medical Interpreters
    • Microlectures
    • Partnering with medical interpreter
  • Training
  • Media Coverage
  • About Us
    • Overview
    • SAGE Certificate Program
    • iSAGE Team
    • Contact iSAGE
    • Aging Adult Services at Stanford
    • System Requirements

Working with Culturally Diverse Elders and Family Members

Common cultural differences in expected participation by family members in elders’ health care:

  1. Disclosure of terminal/ serious condition to family members but not to elder.
  2. Decision making by family member(s) instead of by patient.
  3. Cultural show of respect to elder through family caregiving rather than encouraging independence.
  4. Spiritual/religious beliefs by family that elder’s life should:
    1. be preserved by all means despite decreased quality.
    2. allow time for a “miracle”.
    3. allow God to control the time of death.
  5. Importance of presence of large numbers of family members, which may interfere with medical or nursing routines.
  6. Cultural expectations of behavior (e.g., cross-gender touching).

Techniques to minimize conflict:

  1. Ask older patient’s preference for decision making early in care.
  2. Ask older patient to identify family spokesperson(s).
  3. In emergencies, ask the family to appoint a spokesperson.
  4. Respect appointment, even if the person is not a family member or does not live nearby.
  5. Use a cultural broker or cultural guide from the elder’s ethnic or religious background:
    1. to assist the health care team.
    2. to advise on cultural communication patterns (e.g., meaning of eye contact/body language).
  6. Familiarize multidisciplinary health care team with cultural explanatory models of elder’s condition(s).
    Pages:
  • <
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7

Primary Sidebar

Culturemed Image

Ethnomed Overview: Delivery of Care

  • Description
  • Learning Objectives
  • Ethnic Issues
    • Treatment Issues & Responses
    • Advanced Care Planning
    • Medication Issues
    • Dementia
    • Long Term Care
    • Surgery
    • Coordinating Therapies
    • Family Members
  • Health Care Disparities
  • Health Care Utilization
  • US Health Policy
  • Service Models

Learning Resources

  • Instructional Strategies
  • Evaluation Strategies
  • References
  • Links
  • Glossary
  • Interview Strategies
© 2019 Stanford Medicine
Privacy Policy • Terms of Use