Integrating Compliance, Communication, and Culture: Delivering Health Care to an Aging Population

Abstract

Older adults often get lost in the process of assessment, diagnosis and service brokering. If our concern as care providers is to enable older persons to remain independent or in the community for as long as possible, we must tap into their personal values, cultural identity and health beliefs in order to foster enhanced health care communication. To meet the predicted health care needs of this large and diverse older population, care providers and patients will need to reexamine their attitudes and communication skills in order to foster a symbiotic partnership in the delivery of health care.