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Chapter 58 - Cultural Competence

from Section IV - Principles of Care for the Elderly

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2022

By
Gwen Yeo
Edited by
Jan Busby-Whitehead ,
Samuel C. Durso ,
Christine Arenson ,
Rebecca Elon ,
Mary H. Palmer  and
William Reichel
Jan Busby-Whitehead
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Samuel C. Durso
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University, Maryland
Christine Arenson
Affiliation:
Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia
Rebecca Elon
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Mary H. Palmer
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
William Reichel
Affiliation:
Georgetown University Medical Center
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Summary

The rapidly growing proportion of older Americans who are from very diverse ethnic and racial minorities will produce an ethnogeriatric imperative for geriatricians and other health-care providers. Many older adults from minority backgrounds experience disparities in the quality of their health care and disparities in their health status by their higher risk for diseases such as diabetes, heart failure, and dementia.

To provide effective ethnogeriatric care for this culturally diverse older patient population, health-care organizations need to become culturally competent by applying the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Health Care, including providing trained interpreters for providers to use in care with limited English proficient older adults. The geriatric providers themselves need to become culturally competent in their: (1) attitudes such as developing cultural humility and reducing their bias; (2) knowledge of cultural values and health risks of their older patients; and (3) skills in showing culturally appropriate respect, eliciting patients’ explanatory models of their illness, and working appropriately with interpreters.

Keywords

ethnogeriatricsethnicracehealth disparitiesculturally and linguistically appropriate standardsinterpreterscultural valuesexplanatory models of illness
Type
Chapter
Information
Reichel's Care of the Elderly
Clinical Aspects of Aging
 , pp. 705 - 715
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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