Older Asian Indian women often recommend home treatment. Home remedies, such as massage, bathing and herbal medicines may be used first, while a physician is sought out only for serious illness. Some behaviors that many older adults prefer include ritual chanting by a priest. Amulets—like tying a thread around the sick person’s wrist or writing a protective verse to be worn in a metal cylinder on a chain around the neck or wrist are common.
Attitude Towards Home Health Care
For many Asian Indian older adults, the activities of social workers and home care nurses are unfamiliar and often not welcomed. Home visits by these providers are not always acceptable. They seek help from family and friends and are unlikely to place an older adult in a nursing home except as a last resort.
