“…The belief in self‐reliance also explains why many Chinese families continue to perform their caring responsibility despite the input from social care. Seeking outside help is negatively perceived in Chinese societies as it openly admits that the family is unable to care for their own (Au & Au , Chan & O'Connor ). Participants remarked:It's the habit of Chinese, we like being self‐reliant.…”
What is known about this topic• Underutilisation of disability support services is common among people from Chinese backgrounds in England.• A lack of knowledge of services available and language difference are known factors that lead to underutilisation.• In traditional Chinese societies, family bears the main responsibility for looking after relatives with health and social care need.
What this paper adds• Language difference creates a barrier to negotiating access to and navigating through social care.• The cultural expectation of looking after their own and limited support from their small support network create tension during help-seeking.• The perception that their voices will not be listened to discourages expression of opinions when services are not meeting their needs.
AbstractThe satisfaction of social care among service users provides an important indication of how services are performing. Although there is evidence to suggest that people from black and minority ethnic communities experience less satisfaction with social care than majority groups, there is little literature which focuses specifically on people from Chinese backgrounds in England. This article provides an opportunity to hear the voices of people from Chinese backgrounds and their experiences of social care for a physical disability. Individual semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted in 2012 and 2013 respectively with people from Chinese backgrounds who lived in England, were aged between 18 and 70, and received social care for a physical disability. Interview and focus group transcripts were analysed using a thematic approach. The findings show that language difference created a structural barrier for most participants to negotiating access to and navigating through social care. Language difference and the cultural expectation that families should look after their own were main factors that explained their late utilisation of social care. Because of limited social support, many families struggled to meet the long-term care needs of their relative with a physical disability and hence initially welcome the input of social care. However, many found that social care could not adequately meet their needs but did not feel that they had the right to voice their dissatisfaction. They would either stop using social care services or become more reliant on their family for support. Chinese welfare organisations play a crucial role to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of people from Chinese backgrounds. Closer collaboration between local authorities and Chinese welfare organisations is needed to enable an effective use of social care and community resources to meet the needs of people from Chinese backgrounds with physical disabilities.
“…The belief in self‐reliance also explains why many Chinese families continue to perform their caring responsibility despite the input from social care. Seeking outside help is negatively perceived in Chinese societies as it openly admits that the family is unable to care for their own (Au & Au , Chan & O'Connor ). Participants remarked:It's the habit of Chinese, we like being self‐reliant.…”
What is known about this topic• Underutilisation of disability support services is common among people from Chinese backgrounds in England.• A lack of knowledge of services available and language difference are known factors that lead to underutilisation.• In traditional Chinese societies, family bears the main responsibility for looking after relatives with health and social care need.
What this paper adds• Language difference creates a barrier to negotiating access to and navigating through social care.• The cultural expectation of looking after their own and limited support from their small support network create tension during help-seeking.• The perception that their voices will not be listened to discourages expression of opinions when services are not meeting their needs.
AbstractThe satisfaction of social care among service users provides an important indication of how services are performing. Although there is evidence to suggest that people from black and minority ethnic communities experience less satisfaction with social care than majority groups, there is little literature which focuses specifically on people from Chinese backgrounds in England. This article provides an opportunity to hear the voices of people from Chinese backgrounds and their experiences of social care for a physical disability. Individual semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted in 2012 and 2013 respectively with people from Chinese backgrounds who lived in England, were aged between 18 and 70, and received social care for a physical disability. Interview and focus group transcripts were analysed using a thematic approach. The findings show that language difference created a structural barrier for most participants to negotiating access to and navigating through social care. Language difference and the cultural expectation that families should look after their own were main factors that explained their late utilisation of social care. Because of limited social support, many families struggled to meet the long-term care needs of their relative with a physical disability and hence initially welcome the input of social care. However, many found that social care could not adequately meet their needs but did not feel that they had the right to voice their dissatisfaction. They would either stop using social care services or become more reliant on their family for support. Chinese welfare organisations play a crucial role to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of people from Chinese backgrounds. Closer collaboration between local authorities and Chinese welfare organisations is needed to enable an effective use of social care and community resources to meet the needs of people from Chinese backgrounds with physical disabilities.
“…The payoff for communicating such information to policy, education, and practice can be huge. The information is particularly useful at a time when resources are scarce and community support is an important pillar of dementia care (Chan & O'Connor, 2008;O'Connor & Chan, 2011).…”
Literature indicates that dementia caring is difficult and challenging. This literature is scarce for ethnic minorities and lacking most acutely, despite its huge diasporic population, for the Chinese group. Where available, the focus is mostly on the Chinese carer, with the regular absence of the person with dementia and the interactions of the care-partners. From an interpretive phenomenological perspective, this in-depth case study of four Chinese immigrant families takes Kitwood's (1997) personhood approach to include the Chinese person with dementia. Findings show how this inclusion is possible and important for better understanding and effecting dementia care in research, policy, and practice.
“…Chan and O'Conner's (2008) concept of "speaking out" provides a useful perspective to culturally competent group work practice model for Asian family caregivers. In the qualitative interviews with six Chinese family caregivers who participated in Family Support Groups, they found "speaking out" to be a vital process to for the Asian family caregivers to articulate their needs and find their voice in the caregiving setting.…”
Section: Psychoeducational Groups For Family Caregiversmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In the qualitative interviews with six Chinese family caregivers who participated in Family Support Groups, they found "speaking out" to be a vital process to for the Asian family caregivers to articulate their needs and find their voice in the caregiving setting. During the Family Support Groups, the Chinese family caregivers could (1) challenge the negative concept of "speaking out" in the caregiving context in their culture, (2) reframe and acknowledged the significance of "speaking out," and (3) reenvision a new perspective for family caregiving in their culture and context (Chan, & O'Conner, 2008).…”
Section: Psychoeducational Groups For Family Caregiversmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Based on a literature review of the effectiveness of psychoeducational groups (Tompkins & Bell, 2010) and the role of culture on the group work model (Au et al, 2010;Chan & O'Conner, 2008), the following psychoeducational group model focusing on skill building and development of social support was proposed. The main aims of the group were (1) to help the immigrant dementia caregivers develop active coping skills through learning and practice cognitive and behavioral techniques in culturally competent ways, (2) to increase the use of social support (formal and informal) by the caregiving populations, and (3) to increase the quality of mental health by reducing caregiving stress.…”
Section: Proposed Group Model For Korean American Dementia Family Carmentioning
Seven Korean American dementia family caregivers participated in a psychoeducational group. A focus group was conducted to explore the effectiveness of the group work model. Analysis of the focus group presented four themes: (1) importance of education about dementia, (2) social support from other Korean caregivers,(3) role of language and Korean culture, and (4) heterogeneity of caregivers' needs. Implications for social work practice, policy, and research are provided.
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