The limits of multiculturalism in elder care services

Over the past decade, policymakers and practitioners in the field of aging have been increasingly challenged to develop appropriate health and social services for elders from diverse ethnic communities. This has largely resulted from concerns regarding the significant barriers to care faced by disenfranchised elders. However, advances in the articulation of multicultural practice and policy dealing with ethnic communities have focused almost exclusively on developing competency skills based on individual communication and understanding between formal service providers and clients rather than on exposing and altering institutional structures and power relations marked by racism. Indeed, antiracist agendas are rarely articulated in gerontological settings. This article reports on some of the central findings of a qualitative institutional ethnographic study on health care access among ethnic elderly women. It addresses the question of how multicultural programs and policies operate in elder care services and how they are experienced by ethnic elderly female clients and their service providers.