The cultural whisper in our ear : intercultural dementia care in a Jewish long-term care facility
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Social Work, School of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Stern, Louise Ann
issued: 2012-04-23T20:13:12Z
issued: 2012
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Long-term care facilities are becoming more representative of the diverse ethno-cultural demographics of Canadian society in the make-up of residents, family and staff that live and work there. Therefore, it is entirely likely that care given and received in these facilities will be intercultural in nature. That is, the people caring for them may be from different ethno-cultural, racial and religious backgrounds than the people they are caring for. The impacts of this phenomenon on care provision within elder care settings, such as long-term care have not been adequately explored in the research literature, especially in a Canadian context. The purpose of this qualitative, ethnographic research study was to explore the impact of these intercultural dynamics on care for people with advanced dementia. This study took place over 9 months on a care unit based in a Jewish long-term care facility. The choice of an ethno-culturally specific facility allowed for an exploration of the culture concept in a setting in which culture and cultural identity are deeply embedded within daily life. Field work included approximately 210 hours of participant observation, 21 interviews with a diverse mix of staff and family members, 20 Dementia Care Mapping sessions with residents, and document analysis including resident care charts, and facility-based and systemic policies and procedures. The findings from this study illustrate the ways in which individuals and groups utilize the culture concept in a myriad of strategic and resourceful ways. They include: helping to secure scarce resources; to make sense of the differences that exist within the health care interactions and dementia care; to help position and locate oneself within the context of an overtly ethno-cultural and medical setting; and to challenge more dominant Western, medical paradigms about dementia, personhood and care that are specific to the end of the dementia process. Dementia care acted as a discursive space through…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/42219
note: THE CULTURAL WHISPER IN OUR EAR: INTERCULTURAL DEMENTIA CARE IN A JEWISH LONG-TERM CARE FACILITY by Louise Ann Stern B.S.W., Ryerson Polytechnic University, 1994 M.S.W., University of British Columbia, 2001 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIRMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Social Work) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2012 © Louise Ann Stern, 2012 ii Abstract Long-term care facilities are becoming more representative of the diverse ethno- cultural demographics of Canadian society in the make-up of residents, family and staff that live and work there. Therefore, it is entirely likely that care given and received in these facilities will be intercultural in nature. That is, the people caring for them may be from different ethno-cultural, racial and religious backgrounds than the people they are caring for. The impacts of this phenomenon on care provision within elder care settings, such as long-term care have not been adequately explored in the research literature, especially in a Canadian context. The purpose of this qualitative, ethnographic research study was to explore the impact of these intercultural dynamics on care for people with advanced dementia. This study took place over 9 months on a care unit based in a Jewish long-term care facility. The choice of an ethno-culturally specific facility allowed for an exploration of the culture concept in a setting in which culture and cultural identity are deeply embedded within daily life. Field work included approximately 210 hours of participant observation, 21 interviews with a diverse mix of staff and family members, 20 Dementia Care Mapping sessions with residents, and document analysis including resident care charts, and facility-based and systemic policies and procedures. The findings from this study illustrate the ways in which individuals and groups utilize the culture concept in a myriad of strategic and resourceful ways.…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2012-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0103458
language: eng
degree discipline: Social Work
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/42219