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WE ARE FAMILY: Outreach to African-American Seniors
This program of the San Francisco Consortium for Elder Abuse Prevention was initiated in 1992 to raise awareness of elder abuse within the African-American community. A network of African-American service providers and clergy was assembled to plan culturally specific materials and create opportunities for service providers to interact with seniors in an environment where the seniors felt comfortable asking for information and assistance. Another primary goal was to identify and respond to unmet service needs and improve access to health and social services.
Outreach activities included the use of traditional African-American traditions and art forms such as poetry, story telling and music. A leadership group, which oversaw the campaign, articulated the following principles to guide the outreach campaign:
- African-American seniors are more likely to respond favorably to outreach efforts that reinforce and show respect for traditional African-American values, beliefs and strengths.
- The outreach message must reflect African-American seniors' experiences, which include the challenges of caregiving in multigenerational families. These experiences must be acknowledged as community concerns and not just individual circumstances.
- In order to improve service utilization by elderly African-Americans, the point of access to the service delivery system must be extended into the community. Services and information should be presented in an atmosphere that is perceived as safe and supportive.
- Outreach materials must reflect African-American seniors' values and preferred styles of communication. Personal testimonials and face-to-face contact are highly valued and effective.
- African-American seniors need “user friendly” information about services and coaching in how to access them. Bureaucratic language causes seniors to “turn off.”
- Seniors are more likely to use services if they are introduced to service providers by trusted individuals who can vouch for the providers' integrity and good intentions. Whenever possible, they should be introduced to services by African-American agency representatives. Outreach materials should also graphically depict African-American clients and service providers.
- Ongoing monitoring is needed to ensure seniors' satisfaction with the responses they receive. Face-to-face questions elicit a more honest and forthright response than written surveys.
- Agencies should make the intake process convenient and acceptable. Unresponsive or offensive practices or personnel should be eliminated. For example, African-American seniors may find it insulting to be called by their first names. Lengthy intake procedures that require repeated visits, which are likely to cause transportation problems, should be avoided.
- Advocacy should be an integral part of the outreach program to ensure that available resources are adequate and accessible. When problems with services arise, they must be addressed in earnest, and remedial action taken. Seniors will not continue to participate in programs when they feel that their concerns have not been heard or when improvements are perceived as merely cosmetic.
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