A live community growing together: Communal occupation of a senior center welcoming Spanish-speaking elders

ABSTRACT

The percentage of Latinx immigrants over the age of 65 in the United States is expected to more than double within the next 30 years. These elders face particular health and occupational disparities emerging from a transaction of individual and sociocultural factors that warrants attention by both service providers and researchers. This study employed an ethnographic approach including interviews, observations, document review, and group mapping activities. It sought to explore a county senior center as it evolves toward greater inclusion of Spanish-speaking members who are increasingly agentic in their community occupations despite facing initial constraints. John Dewey’s philosophy is employed alongside critical theoretical perspectives to illuminate the juxtaposition of individual vulnerability and agency interwoven with structural elements. The communal growth experienced by the senior center and the Spanish-speaking elders is characterized by social relationships that transform, and are transformed by, shared occupation. For occupational scientists, the results offer an expanded understanding of communal occupation and its influence on community change, in this case focused on a marginalized population integrating into dominant cultural spaces and practices.

预计在未来30年内，美国65岁以上拉丁裔移民的比例将增加一倍以上。这些老年人面临着因个人和社会文化因素而引起的特殊的健康和生活活动差异。对此，需要服务提供者和研究人员共同关注。这项研究采用人种学方法，包括访谈、观察、文件审阅和小组制图活动。它寻求探索一个县级老人中心，因为它正逐渐增加接纳说西班牙语的成员。尽管他们最初面临着限制，他们在社区活动中却越来越积极。约翰·杜威（John Dewey）的哲学与批判性理论观点一起被用于阐明个体脆弱性和与结构元素交织在一起的个体行动能力的并置。老人中心和讲西班牙语的老年人所经历的社区成长的特征是，社会关系改变了共同的活动，并且被共同活动所改变。对于生活活动科学家而言，研究结果扩展了对社区活动及其对社区变化影响的理解。在此，研究集中于边缘化人口融入主流文化空间和实践中。

Se espera que en Estados Unidos el porcentaje de inmigrantes latinos mayores de 65 años se duplique con creces en los próximos 30 años. Dichas personas enfrentan disparidades particulares en materia de salud y trabajo, las cuales surgen de una transacción de factores individuales y socioculturales que merece la atención de proveedores de servicios e investigadores. El presente estudio usó un enfoque etnográfico que incluyó entrevistas, observaciones, revisión de documentos y actividades de mapeo de grupo. El mismo intentó explorar un centro de ancianos del condado durante su evolución hacia una mayor inclusión de miembros de habla hispana, quienes son cada vez más activos en sus ocupaciones comunitarias a pesar de tener que enfrentar las limitaciones iniciales. Para iluminar la yuxtaposición de la vulnerabilidad individual y la agencia entrelazada con elementos estructurales, se emplea la filosofía de John Dewey en combinación con perspectivas teóricas críticas. El crecimiento comunal experimentado por el centro de ancianos y los ancianos de habla hispana se caracteriza por el establecimiento de relaciones sociales que transforman, y son transformadas por, la ocupación compartida. Para los científicos ocupacionales, los resultados ofrecen una comprensión más amplia de la ocupación comunal y su influencia en la transformación de la comunidad, en este caso centrada en una población marginada que se integra a espacios y prácticas culturales dominantes.

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational science
• Community occupation
• Senior center
• Immigrants
• Transaction
• Ethnography

Disclosure Statement

The authors have no conflict of interest regarding the contents of this article and will not receive any financial or other benefit from the publication of this article.

Notes

1 Over the course of the study, Spanish-speaking consultants discussed how they were categorized (i.e., Hispanic, Latinx, by origin country), and there was no clear consensus on how or if they wanted to be labeled as a group. They often pushed back against being grouped all together as one culture (e.g. Hispanic, Latinx) and much preferred identifying with their origin country. However, they still recognized a group of shared cultural habits that differentiated them from other groups in the center. Therefore, for the remainder of this article, I refer to the older adult consultants as “Spanish-speaking” because it was truly the social element that gathered them at the center. Additionally, this label does not rely on a racialized categorization of this group and more accurately represents a common element of their experience.