Learning Objectives

After completion of this module, learners will be able to:

1. Describe major priorities in health promotion and disease prevention for ethnic elders.

2. Identify cultural or biological factors that might affect medication or surgical interventions with elders from diverse backgrounds.

3. Understand that the most effective health care team includes the older patient, all health care providers (including alternative providers being used by the patient), and the patient’s family member(s).

4. Describe issues that geriatric providers should be sensitive to in working with families of elders from diverse cultural backgrounds and techniques that might be used to avoid problems.

5. List at least one factor that may affect utilization of health care services by ethnic elders in each of the following categories:

• Availability
• Accessibility
• Acceptability