Mojtaba Zokaee, Abdolvahab Baghbanian, Ineke Crezee & Charles Mpofu

ABSTRACT

It is widely acknowledged that older immigrants with dementia have difficulties accessing needed health care, predominantly due to language barriers. Language brokers including children of immigrant families are believed to have a key role as interpreters between care providers and their parents. Evidence of the role of language brokers in access to healthcare services for elderly immigrants is nevertheless uneven. This review aims to explore the contribution of language brokering to access to healthcare services for older immigrant patients with dementia in multicultural societies including Australia and New Zealand. It will investigate the language-related problems aged immigrants might have in accessing health services; and will show how language brokers can help them in accessing needed care. A narrative review of published literature between 2000 and 2021 addressing this issue is being conducted through Pubmed and Google scholar databases. Early findings suggest that, as expected, language difficulty is widespread among older immigrants especially first and second generations, and that patients’ and providers’ perspectives on the value of language brokering varied. While there is growing interest in language brokering and its promising effect on patient health outcomes, appropriate socio-cultural infrastructures are particularly required to increase its contribution to equity in access to health services.

Keywords

Care Providers; Dementia; Elderly Immigrants; Healthcare Services; Interpreters; Language Barriers; Language Brokers; Multicultural Societies

References

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