ELDER CARE: Caring for California’s Aging Population : Families With Strong Ethnic Ties Encounter Additional Problems
There is a popular belief that the elderly in urban areas of the United States are not treated as well as their counterparts in other countries.
Many Asian immigrants worry that when they get old, they will not be accorded the place of honor in their families that went to their grandmothers and grandfathers. Latinos and blacks--along with Anglos--fear that, as they age, their children will abandon them for the suburbs, leaving them to face the ravages of age alone, prey to the crime and poverty of city ghettos.
In fact, recent studies suggest that American city dwellers, whether black or white, rich or poor, are not being ignored by their families as they enter their final years. Quite the contrary.
One study, conducted by James E. Lubben, a UCLA professor of social welfare, found, for example, that elderly Chinese in San Francisco were receiving more support from their children than did their counterparts in Hong Kong.
Yet in accommodating themselves to the pressures of American life, families with strong ethnic ties face special problems in dealing with the difficulties of aging, particularly in getting help from government agencies.
For example, many experts have observed that blacks and Native Americans in general do not receive nearly as much financial assistance from Social Security or Medicare as do other U.S. citizens.
The reasons are many and complicated, said Fernando Torres-Gil, former staff director of the House of Representatives Select Committee on Aging, now an associate professor of public administration and gerontology at USC.
“Probably because of high blood pressure, improper diets over a lifetime, many blacks and Native Americans simply do not live long enough to collect benefits,” he said. “Even if they do live long enough, many minorities, black women especially, have not worked in jobs where they are in a position to collect government (employment) benefits.”
In Los Angeles, there are public and private services that provide personal and medical care for all racial and ethnic groups, but because of their particular backgrounds and cultural experiences, some ethnic groups are far less willing than others to take advantage of what is available.
Social workers have observed that many Asians and Latinos shy away from outside help, especially from services provided by government agencies.
One of the barriers is language, Torres-Gil said. But even when language difficulties can be overcome, many immigrants harbor fears of and prejudices against government intervention into their lives or the lives of their families.
In contrast, Jews and blacks, experts say, take advantage of social services such as group meals and activities for the elderly.
Elderly people living in cities seem to be better off than those in rural areas, where virtually no support exists outside the family. But residence in highly populated areas where there are a large number of elderly people does not guarantee adequate support for seniors’ services.
Studies have shown that Florida, which has among the nation’s highest concentrations of the elderly, is among the worst in providing social services for senior citizens. One of the states that ranks among the best in services for the elderly is Pennsylvania, which has a relatively large population of elderly people. But Massachusetts and New York are also highly ranked and do not have high percentages of elderly citizens.
California is a relative newcomer in the field of gerontology, and its population is also relatively young, according the the American Assn. of Retired Persons. Although the programs in California are far from ideal, many experts in the state and elsewhere agree that they are above average and seem to be improving.
