Preparing Students for Culturally Competent Practice Among Ethnic Minority Elders

Abstract

The increase in the nation's present and projected multicultural aged population is both dramatic and well documented. One result of this growth is a sharpened focus on racial and ethnic disparities in health, health care access, and utilization of services that impact aging adults. This paper presents work conducted by a university-community collaborative project in gerontology. The thrust of the project is that cultural competency is a key ingredient for preparing social work students for work with ethnic minority elders and for potentially improving services to older minority populations. A brief description of the project is presented with highlights of the standards of cultural competencies that were developed for three specific populations: Japanese, Filipino, and Native Hawaiians. In general, standards organized around knowledge, values and skills consistently reflect the importance of the family system in caring for older adults.

This project was funded in part by the Hawai‘i Medical Service Association Foundation, the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and the Hartford Foundation. The assistance of the following project Consortium Council members and support staff is also gratefully acknowledged: Roberta Onzuka Anderson, Susan Atkinson, Jamie Fukui Chang, Charlotte Kuwanoe, Pua Iuli, Christine Langworthy, Leilani Lidstone, Lois Lee, John McDermott, Dr. Linda McLaughlin, Janelle Young Ogata, Sara Wong Tompkison, Ralph Uyeoka, Heidi Wong, and Vicki Woolfard. Thanks, too, to Dr. Rowena Fong at the University of Texas and Dr. Anita Rosen, formerly with the Council on Social Work Education, for their ideas.