For aging adults, performing the tasks that they used to view as a natural part of their daily routine when they were younger may become an unmanageable task. Therefore, adult daycare centers, where healthcare experts address aging citizens’ health-related needs should be regarded as a crucial part of the healthcare system (American Psychological Association, 2020). However, when tending to the needs of aging adults in a daycare environment, healthcare professionals may face a range of issues (Bosch et al., 2017). Among these, the problem of the lack of a culture-specific approach to patients’ needs and the lack of tools for meeting patients’ dietary needs must be mentioned explicitly.
Namely, when performing the key tasks within the adult daycare setting, inconsistencies in communication with Asian American patients due to the presence of the language barrier and the failure to understand the cultural specifics, as well as their need for lower doses of medication, was noticed (Bosch et al., 2017). Furthermore, due to the lack of funding and the insufficient amount of attention paid to the issue of managing the patients’ diet, there was the lack of menu options for patients with unique dietary requirements, such as the dishes rich in calcium and magnesium, as well as the food that does not require active chewing.
The described challenges can be seen as the direct effect of miscommunication between patients and healthcare experts, as well as healthcare experts and the managers of the daycare center. Particularly, when developing the approaches toward addressing aging people’s needs, one must take diversity and age-specific requirements into account so that the provided services could address patients’ health concerns or, at the very least, could not aggravate them (Bosch et al., 2017). In turn, the focus on a multicultural approach will help to understand patients’ issues and demands better, which will allow providing more patient-focused care.
References
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition). Washington, DC: APA.
Bosch, X., Monclús, E., Escoda, O., Guerra-García, M., Moreno, P., Guasch, N., & López-Soto, A. (2017). Unintentional weight loss: Clinical characteristics and outcomes in a prospective cohort of 2677 patients. PloS One, 12(4). Web.