This is an exploratory study to understand how use of state-funded community-based long-term care services (e.g., Medicaid waiver programs and Personal Care Services optional benefit) and other social resources (e.g., financial assistance and housing services) among low-income, older Latinos are influenced by individuals' lived experiences, which are largely constrained by macro-structural forces.

This study uses both qualitative and quantitative data sets collected for an ethnographic study about the roles of culture in management and experiences of illness and old age among low-income, ethnic minority, elderly populations. Data were collected during 1996 to 2000 through semi-structured, in-depth interviews about management of illness and old age. Quantitative data collected consisted of participants' physical functional ability and demographic characteristics.

The purpose of this study is to suggest other factors that may influence access to social services. More precisely, I try to show how life experiences, which are partly the results of class-related conditions, influence the ability to access to social services. Toward this end, I examined service use from the expanded behavioral model for vulnerable population perspective using statistical analyses. I also explored how additional factors influence service using the qualitative data, which was analyzed from the theoretical perspectives of political economy and habitus.

Drawing on the perspectives of political economy and habitus, this study suggests that older Latinos' access to social resources is influenced by their ability to deal with bureaucratic systems in the U.S. society, especially Social Security. Their ability to negotiate with such systems is largely shaped by their life experiences, which are largely influenced by class-related conditions in the U.S. and their home countries. In this sense, this study tries to show the ways in which macro- and micro-factors relate to shape individuals' abilities to access social resources.