The meaning of community-based care for frail Mexican American elders

A qualitative, collective case study research design integrated in-depth interviewing and participant observation to identify how a theoretically sampled collection of frail Mexican American elders socially constructed the meaning of community-based care they received. Analysis revealed extensive variance in how Mexican American cultural identity systems attribute meaning to the eldercare context. The strong intertwined presence of cultural themes involving Latino/Hispanic familism, gender identity constructs, and religious belief systems demonstrated the importance for service providers to take minority cultures into consideration in the development of more consumer-directed eldercare policies and programs.