Search results

Interviewing minority ethnic older people can seem daunting. It is easy for stereotypical views of minority ethnic groups and of older people to lead to pathologising approaches being adopted unwittingly. This article attempts to illuminate several key aspects of conducting interviews with such population groups by drawing partially on the experience of working on a Growing Older project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of Britain. This project looked at the social network and social support of older people from different ethnic groups in Britain and the relationship between these and their quality of life. The research instrument comprised both structured and unstructured components. Interviews were conducted by a multi‐ethnic team of interviewers speaking a range of community languages. By focussing attention on the interactional nature of interviewing, this article explicates the process of conducting research. Issues pertaining to the choice of language, the use of interpreters, ethnic matching of interviewers and interviewees, the use of standardised instruments and the interview itself as a tool for data‐generation are examined. This article contends that a reflexive approach to methodology can lead to a more robust approach to data by confronting the practical, methodological and ethical issues encountered in doing research with such population groups. The issues raised are not merely in terms of ‘white’ researchers working with ‘non‐white’ respondents, but relate to the improvement of research practice in general regardless of the ethnic background of researcher and respondent.

This paper analyses how neighbourhood governance of social care affects the scope for frontline workers to address health inequities of older ethnic minorities. We critically discuss how an area-based, generic approach to service provision limits and enables frontline workers' efforts to reach out to ethnic minority elders, using a relational approach to place. This approach emphasises social and cultural distances to social care and understands efforts to bridge these distances as “relational work”.

The authors conducted a two-year multiple case study of the cities of Nijmegen and The Hague, the Netherlands, following the development of policies and practices relevant to ethnic minority elders. They conducted 44 semi-structured interviews with managers, policy officers and frontline workers as well as 295 h of participant observation at network events and meeting activities.

Relational work was open-ended and consisted of a continuous reorientation of goals and means. In some cases, frontline workers spanned neighbourhood boundaries to connect with professional networks, key figures and places meaningful to ethnic minority elders. While neighbourhood governance is attuned to equality, relational work practice fosters possibilities for achieving equity.

Further research on achieving equity in relational work practice and more explicit policy support of relational work is needed.

The paper contributes empirical knowledge about how neighbourhood governance of social care affects ethnic minority elders. It translates a relational view of place into a “situational” social justice approach.

There is a popular perception that particular ethnic groups have a stronger sense of filial responsibility than is found in Western European societies, which has led to a belief that formal services are not required by minority groups. However, it has been suggested that some minority ethnic older people are actually in greater need of support, because of factors such as poorer health and lower socio‐economic status, than the white majority in Britain. Employing data from the 2005 Home Office Citizenship Survey, ethnic group differences in help given to family members are examined. Contrary to prevailing assumptions, there was only one ethnic group difference; black Caribbean older people had significantly lower odds than white British people of supporting members of their household. Support was equally likely among all other minority groups and the white British group, providing nationally representative evidence for an idea only previously speculated upon.

The black and ethnic minority (BME) elderly population in England and Wales is increasing. As dementia is an age‐related disorder and the prevalence of depression in old age is high, the absolute number of cases of dementia and depression will increase among BME elders. This has implications for the development and delivery of old age psychiatry services (OAPSs) for BME elders. Demographic data pertaining to the elderly from BME groups in the 2001 population census were analysed in detail to evaluate the implications for development and delivery of OAPSs for BME elders. The demographic changes identified have important future implications for the development and delivery of OAPSs for BME elders. Unless they are addressed systematically, BME elders will continue to harbour untreated, hidden psychiatric morbidity. Strategies to ensure that this vulnerable group of elderly are identified and provided with accessible, acceptable and culturally sensitive OAPSs should be developed.

Despite the growing evidence base about depression and anxiety and its application to service settings and practice, we are short of practice examples about what works and for whom. This applies to older people in general but particularly to groups, such as people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. This article discusses policy and legislative encouragements to think about equality of access and diversity issues in mental health services and wider mental health promotion activities. It analyses recent research and policy documents in the context of demographic change and practice. It argues that the context of personalisation in England may provide new opportunities to consider what older people will find most acceptable and effective in meeting their needs, but notes the challenges that this will bring to community‐based organisations and specialist services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on long-standing, structural race inequality in Britain. This paper aims to review historic patterns of ethnic diversity among the workforce employed in services for older people to present some of the lessons that can be learned from the pandemic.

A historical overview was undertaken of research about ethnic diversity in the social care workforce.

Too often, the ethnic diversity of the social care workforce has been taken as evidence that structural racial inequalities do not exist. Early evidence about the impact of coronavirus on workers from black and minority ethnic groups has led to initiatives aimed at reducing risk among social care employers in the independent sector and in local government. This offers a blueprint for further initiatives aimed at reducing ethnic inequalities and promoting ethnic diversity among the workforce supporting older people.

The increasing ethnic diversity of the older population and the UK labour force highlights the importance of efforts to address what is effective in reducing ethnic inequalities and what works in improving ethnic diversity within the social care workforce and among those using social care services for older people.

The ethnic makeup of the workforce reflects a complex reality based on multiple factors, including historical patterns of migration and gender and ethnic inequalities in the UK labour market.

There is a shortage of examples of arrangements and practice approaches that focus on mental wellbeing in black and minority ethnic (BME) older people. This article draws on our practice enquiry1, which brought together accounts of social care practice across different types of social care settings from four parts of the UK, away from the areas of high demographic concentration that have been the focus of most previous research. Over 80 practitioners, managers, older people and carers were interviewed over 2009‐2010. They described and reflected on the support for older people from BME backgrounds, particularly focusing on how they might promote mental well‐being.