WHAT HEALTH-RELATED INFORMATION IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW IN DELIVERING SERVICES TO OLDER MINORITY GROUP INDIVIDUALS?
American Psychological Association
Table of Contents
Why Practitioners Need Information
- The onset of chronic illness is usually earlier than in White older adults.
- There are frequent delays in seeking health-related treatments.
- Problems are underreported to health care providers or only conveyed to them in generalities until trust is established.
- Mental health services are underutilized.
- There are high rates of noncompliance with medical regimens and treatment dropout.
- There is evidence of increased tolerance to illness / disorder / discomfort to which individuals have adapted.
- Although longevity for Black older men is shorter than for White older adults, after age 75 Blacks live longer than Whites ("racial crossover").
- There is a higher incidence of obesity and late onset diabetes.
- A sizable number of minority older adults do not qualify for Medicaid in some states.
- Minority older adults frequently have been excluded from drug research.
- Factors contributing to poor mental health include: poverty, segregated and disorganized communities, poor quality of education, few role responsibilities, sporadic and chronic unemployment, stereotyping, discrimination, and poor health care.
- Access to mental health care is problematic for many minority older persons because up to 40 percent of psychiatrists will not accept Medicaid patients.
- As with the majority of older adults, chief providers of mental health services are more likely to be primary health care physicians (nonpsychiatrists).
- There is frequent misdiagnosis. For example, an older Black man may act suspiciously toward White mental health care staff who might interpret this as paranoia, without taking into consideration past adverse experiences with health care providers.
- There is overrepresentation in state mental hospitals.
- Some minority older adults use dual systems of care in which other approaches to health care augment Western approaches. Knowledge of dual systems of health care is important because minority older people may not readily accept traditional western formulations of their problems. They may be wary of interventions that do not make sense within their belief system.
