Highlights
- •What is the primary question addressed by this study? How can clinicians increase access and engage Asian older adults in mental health treatment and services?
- •What is the main finding of this study? An Asian older adult who faced barriers to obtaining depression care, had unique needs in terms of language and experienced a complicated social context used mental health services in primary care that used a patient-oriented, collaborative approach. During the care process, the interdisciplinary team was able to understand and navigate the complexity of physician-patient communication and patient ethnic identity with reduction of depression and provision of important social resources to the patient.
- •What is the meaning of the finding? Asian immigrant older adults can access and engage in mental health services, and specific models of depression care as well as use of strategies to understand and address the unique needs of the Asian patient may contribute to successfully serving this underserved group.
Abstract
Minority older adults face multiple barriers when trying to access mental health services
and often present with more severe symptoms of mental health conditions. We describe
the multilevel factors that contributed to the engagement of an Asian immigrant older
adult with depression. Systems-level innovations such as collaborative care in primary
care can increase access to care for all, including minority older adults; however,
one size fits all interventions may not meet the needs of communities of older adults
with different life experiences, language needs, norms and values regarding help-seeking
for mental health. Health outcomes remain unequal , suggesting the need to tailor
interventions for minority older adults. For the patient, specific factors related
to language and ethnic concordance between patient and healthcare provider, communication
behaviors, ethnic identity, and social norms may be important to take into account.
The recognition of the heterogeneity of patients and the limitations of cultural competence
approaches defined as broad, general knowledge about ethnic cultures may be needed.
A need to learn continuously from clinical experience and adopt a patient-oriented
model of communication and decision-making may successfully engage Asian immigrant
older adults in depression care services.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 27, 2021
Accepted:
July 1,
2021
Received in revised form:
April 6,
2021
Received:
June 25,
2019
Footnotes
The contents of this manuscript have not been presented orally or by poster at any conferences.
Accompanying podcast is available at: https://www.ajgponline.org/
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
