Purpose: Adult day care programs in the United States are seeing an increase in culturally diverse patients. The purpose of this study was to better understand the subjective experiences of staff and Cambodian refugees attending an adult day center in the United States that provides services focused on the cultural needs of the older adults, such as Cambodian food, activities, and Cambodian staff. Design: This is a qualitative study using grounded theory to analyze 10 individual interviews from staff members and 80 individual interviews from participants who attend an adult day care program for Cambodians in a city in the northeast United States. Findings: Three primary themes emerged: The participants felt respected, there was a generational tension between the young staff and the participants, and the center acted as a cultural liaison between the medical providers and the participants.
AndersonK. A.Dabelko-SchoenyH.JohnsonT. D. (2013). The state of adult day services: Findings and implications from the MetLife national study of adult day services. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 32, 729-748. doi:10.1177/0733464812447284
2.
BeckerG.BeyeneY. (1999). Narratives of age and uprootedness among older Cambodian refugees. Journal of Aging Studies, 13, 295-314.
BrownE. L.FriedemannM.-L.MauroA. C. (2014). Use of adult day care service centers in an ethnically diverse sample of older adults. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 33, 189-206. doi:10.1177/0733464812460431
5.
CatolicoO. (2013). Seeking life balance: The perceptions of health of Cambodian women in resettlement. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 24, 236-245. doi:10.1177/1043659613481624
CorbinJ.StraussA. (1990). Grounded theory research: Procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria. Qualitative Sociology, 13, 3-21.
8.
D’AvanzoC. E.FryeB. (1994). Culture, stress and substance use in Cambodian refugee women. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 55, 420-426.
9.
DubusN. (2010). “I feel like her daughter not her mother”: Ethnographic trans-cultural perspective of the experiences of aging for a group of Southeast Asian refugees in the United States. Journal of Aging Studies, 24, 204-211. doi:10.1016/j.jaging.2010.02.002
10.
El-AttarM. (1990). Refugees as immigrants: Cambodians, Laotians, and Vietnamese in America. Contemporary Sociology, 19, 256-257.
11.
FengyanT.YeonjungL. E. E. (2010). Home- and community-based services utilization and aging in place. Home Health Care Services Quarterly, 29, 138-154. doi:10.1080/01621424.2010.511518
12.
FieldsN. L.AndersonK. A.Dabelko-SchoenyH. (2014). The effectiveness of adult day services for older adults: A review of the literature from 2000 to 2011. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 33, 130-163. doi:10.1177/0733464812443308
13.
FryeB. A. (1991). Cultural themes in health-care decision making among Cambodian refugee women. Journal of Community Health Nursing, 8, 33-44.
14.
GinsburgI. F.EngC. (2009). On-site mental health services for PACE (Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly) centers. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 10, 277-280. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2009.02.013
15.
GlaserB. G.StraussA. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
16.
Grigg-SaitoD.OchS.LiangS.ToofR.SilkaL. (2008). Building on the strengths of a Cambodian refugee community through community-based outreach. Health Promotion Practice, 9, 415-425. doi:10.1177/1524839906292176
17.
Grigg-SaitoD.ToofR.SilkaL.LiangS.SouL.NajarianL.. . . OchS. (2010). Long-term development of a “whole community” best practice model to address health disparities in the Cambodian refugee and immigrant community of Lowell, Massachusetts. American Journal of Public Health, 100, 2026-2029. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2009.177030
18.
HanM.ValenciaM.LeeY. S.De LeonJ. (2012). Development and implementation of the culturally competent program with Cambodians: The pilot psycho-social-cultural treatment group program. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 21, 212-230. doi:10.1080/15313204.2012.700494
19.
HintonD. E.KredlowM. A.PichV.BuiE.HofmannS. G. (2013). The relationship of PTSD to key somatic complaints and cultural syndromes among Cambodian refugees attending a psychiatric clinic: The Cambodian Somatic Symptom and Syndrome Inventory (CSSI). Transcultural Psychiatry, 50(3), 347-370. doi:10.1177/1363461513481187
20.
HoareK. J.MillsJ.FrancisK. (2012). Dancing with data: An example of acquiring theoretical sensitivity in a grounded theory study. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 18, 240-245. doi:10.1111/j.1440-172X.2012.02038.x
JarrottS. E.ZaritS. H.BergS.JohanssonL. (1998). Adult day care for dementia: A comparison of programs in Sweden and the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 13, 99-108.
23.
KamyaH.PoindexterC. C. (2009). Mama Jaja: The stresses and strengths of HIV-affected Ugandan grandmothers. Social Work in Public Health, 24, 4-21. doi:10.1080/19371910802569294
24.
KönigH.-H.LeichtH.BickelH.FuchsA.GensichenJ.MaierW.. . . EckardtM. (2013). Effects of multiple chronic conditions on health care costs: An analysis based on an advanced tree-based regression model. BMC Health Services Research, 13(1), 1-13. doi:10.1186/1472-6963-13-219
25.
KuzuyaM.MasudaY.HirakawaY.IwataM.EnokiH.HasegawaJ.IguchiA. (2006). Day care service use is associated with lower mortality in community-dwelling frail older people. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 54, 1364-1371. doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2006.00860.x
26.
LeeH. Y.LytleK.YangP. N.LumT. (2010). Mental health literacy in Hmong and Cambodian elderly refugees: A barrier to understanding, recognizing, and responding to depression. International Journal of Aging & Human Development, 71(4), 323-344. doi:10.2190/AG.71.4.d
27.
LiouC.-l.JarrottS. E. (2013). Taiwanese experiences: Elders with dementia in two different Adult Day Service (ADS) environments. Aging & Mental Health, 17, 942-951. doi:10.1080/13607863.2013.788998
28.
MarshallG. N.SchellT. L.ElliottM. N.BertholdS. M.ChunC.-A. (2005). Mental health of Cambodian refugees 2 decades after resettlement in the United States. Journal of the American Medical Association, 294, 571-579.
29.
McSpaddenL. A. (1997). Aging and family in an Afghan refugee community: Transitions and transformations. International Migration Review, 31, 1139-1140.
30.
MillsJ.BonnerA.FrancisK. (2006). The development of constructivist grounded theory. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), 1-10.
31.
Montes de OcaV.GarcíaT. R.SáenzR.GuillénJ. (2011). The linkage of life course, migration, health, and aging: Health in adults and elderly Mexican migrants. Journal of Aging & Health, 23, 1116-1140. doi:10.1177/0898264311422099
32.
OttoM. W.HintonD.KorblyN. B.CheaA.BaP.GershunyB. S.PollackM. H. (2003). Treatment of pharmacotherapy-refractory posttraumatic stress disorder among Cambodian refugees: A pilot study of combination treatment with cognitive-behavior therapy vs sertraline alone. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 41(11), 1271-1276. doi:10.1016/S0005-7967(03)00032-9
33.
ShemiraniF. S.O’ConnorD. L. (2006). Aging in a foreign country: Voices of Iranian women aging in Canada. Journal of Women & Aging, 18, 73-90. doi:10.1300/J074v18n02_06
34.
StrumpfN.GlicksmanA.Goldberg-GlenR.FoxR.LogueE. (2001). Caregiver and elder experiences of Cambodian, Vietnamese, Soviet Jewish, and Ukrainian refugees. International Journal of Aging & Human Development, 53, 233-252.
35.
TsukadaN.SaitoY. (2006). Factors that affect older Japanese people’s reluctance to use home help care and adult day care services. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 21, 121-137. doi:10.1007/s10823-006-9028-9
VincentG. K.VelkoffA. (2010). The next four decades, the older population in the United States: 2010 to 2050. Current Population Reports, P25-1138, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC.
38.
WongE.MarshallG.SchellT.ElliottM.BabeyS.HambarsoomiansK. (2011). The unusually poor physical health status of Cambodian refugees two decades after resettlement. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 13, 876-882. doi:10.1007/s10903-010-9392-y
