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Publications & Resources
An Ethnic Elder Demographic Guide Volume ONE | Helping You to Help | Understanding Diversity & Caregiving | Directory
Publications & Resources
Over the years, APIOATF's M.E.N.T.O.R.S. Program has published several resources that highlight different aspects of providing services to older adults. These publications include guides, handbooks, directors, and DVDs. All of these have been designed for and are available to service providers to download on this website as needed.
To download any of these publications, please click *here*.
Please contact us with any inquiries.
An Ethnic Elder Demographic Guide to Los Angeles County, Volume TWO
With the positive feedback we received from our An Ethnic Elder Demographic Guide to Los Angeles County Volume 1, APIOATF is proud to present Volume 2, which takes a closer look at the Economic, Grandparents Caregiving, Health, Housing and Language characteristics of ethnic elders in Los Angeles City and County. A section on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Older Adults is also included. Service Planning Area (SPA) Maps and Transportation Guide can be found under Appendix A and B.
Given the limited availability of relevant data and information regarding this target population, it is our hope that the Guide gives service providers and other readers a better understanding of the needs and challenges facing elders of color who live in the City and the County of Los Angeles. It will assist readers with program planning, funding allocation, service delivery and/or public policy formulation for older adults.
To download, click here.
API Elderly in Los Angeles County: An Information and Resource Handbook
In 1998, M.E.N.T.O.R.S. developed Asian & Pacific Islander Elderly in Los Angeles County: An Information and Resource Handbook (and a second volume in 2003) to enhance service providers' knowledge and understanding to API communities.
- The handbook includes valuable information on the following communities
- Cambodian
- Chinese & Taiwanese
- Filipino
- Japanese
- Korean
- Lao
- Samoan
- Tongan
- Indian
- Pakistani
- Thai
- Vietnamese
The handbook covers each community's historical and cultural background, immigration patterns, community development resources, elderly population characteristics, needs and problems and cultural do's and don'ts. The volume II handbook is available at no cost to Los Angeles County Area Agency on Aging-contracted agencies on CD-ROM.
To download, click here.
An Ethnic Elder Demographic Guide to L.A. County VOLUME ONE
In June 2007, M.E.N.T.O.R.S. published An Ethnic Elder Demographic Guide to L.A. County: Population Count & Disability Characteristics. The DVD-ROM guide is the result of a collaborative effort with APIOATF's project consultant, Eric Wat, Data Manager at Special Service for Groups, and community leaders in the aging network. Volume 1 is comprised of the Population Count and Disability Characteristics. Volume 2, which will be made available in Spring 2008, will include sections on economic, language, household, housing, and health characteristics.
Despite the rapid growth of the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) population, data collection and reporting of the API population by state and public agencies are often presented as a single group or entity or it is non-existent. It does not reflect the tremendous economic, social, cultural and language differences that exist among the more than 20 ethnic groups that comprise the API population. For example, the needs of and service planning for Samoan elders in the City of Carson are vastly different from those for Cambodian elders in Long Beach, who are refugees and have a different culture and language needs. This has strong implication on program planning; funding allocation, service delivery and/or public policy formulation. In essence, without more demographic data on specific API constituent groups, decision makers are hampered in their ability to craft public policy and provide services that can better target the needs of these fast-growing but underrepresented communities.
This DVD-ROM guide organizes the most current demographic information collected from the U.S. 2000 Census data in a user-friendly format to help Area Agency on Aging (AAA) contracted service providers improve services to ethnic elders in Los Angeles County. Tables and color-coded maps generated to represent the eight service planning areas (SPA) will provide a visual tool with which service providers can easily locate the select areas served. It is APIOATF's hope that the disaggregated data and improved ability to identify ethnic constituencies in each SPA area will assist service providers in addressing the particular needs of each demographic.
To download, click here.
Helping You to Help
In 2007, M.E.N.T.O.R.S. published Helping You to Help: A Service Provider's Cultural Guide to Assisting African American Caregivers in Los Angeles County. The primary audience for this book is the network of 49 health and social service providers who are contracted by County AAA to provide services to older adults and family caregivers. other professionals outside the County aging network who wish to increase their knowledge, as well as their ability to better-understand and outreach African American family caregivers, will also find this book useful.
Modeled after previous handbooks produced by the M.E.N.T.O.R.S. Project that incorporate information such as cultural factors influencing behaviors, cultural barriers to accessing services, family and community structures, history, demographics, and other data to assist service providers in effectively serving Asian and Pacific Islander elderly and family caregivers in Los Angeles County, this new publication provides relevant information to increase the awareness of service providers regarding factors that might limit their agency's ability to successfully link African American family caregivers to services.
This handbook is NOT meant to be an exhaustive review of the cultural issues that underlie African American help-seeking behaviors, but is meant to serve as an additional resource in a user-friendly format to help service providers better-understand caregiving among African Americans.
- Table of Contents include:
- Profile of an African American Caregiver
- Family
- Health
- Finances
- Coping Mechanisms
- The System
- Cultural Do's and Don'ts for Service Providers
To download, click here.
Understanding Diversity & Caregiving
In 2005, M.E.N.T.O.R.S. created a documentary DVD titled Understanding Diversity & Caregiving: Cambodian Caregivers in L.A.County. It examines a part of Los Angeles County that is rarely explored: the world of Cambodian seniors, including caregivers. This world is marked by the legacy of "the killing fields," the Cambodian political and economic turmoil from which refugees escaped into the United States. The resulting sense of isolation, nightmares, confusion and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome, combined with language and cultural barriers, contributed to an inability to access services in the mainstream community.
Viewers (care managers, health providers, policymakers, and other) will gain new insight to better understand the perception of caregiving in the Cambodian community; the stress and hardship often experienced by Cambodian elders and family caregivers from a cultural and historical perspective. Viewers will learn how a culturally apprpriate and geographically accessible meal site program in Long Beach becomes a trusted community resource for seniors and their caregivers. The project also empowers the elders by providing them with the opportunity to tell their stories and express their needs in their own voice.
For a hardcopy, please contact us.
Member Agency Directory
In 2006, APIOATF took the liberty of creating a directory containing the contact information of all of its members agencies. The directory is meant to be a resource guide for senior services in Los Angeles County Asian and Pacific Islander communities.
For the contents of the directory, please Click Here.
