AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community

The rewards of providing care to an aging family member are numerous, but psychological, social, physical, and economic stressors are often also present. Moreover, community programs and services designed to provide education, resources, and respite to caregivers and therapeutic benefit to seniors, Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) caregivers may still confront significant cultural and structural barriers to service use. This paper is based on a highly successful community-wide outreach and education program conducted in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles, California in 2003 targeting current and future Korean American caregivers. It employed tenets of French and Raven’s original model of social power and interpersonal influence. We present details of how the authors addressed cultural and structural barriers to enhance access to services, as well as recommendations for future research in this area.