The Alzheimer’s Association (2018) indicates that 5.7 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s Dementia, and approximately 7.1 million Americans will have Dementia by 2025. We are currently unaware of the prevalence of dementia in the US for people who are multilingual or speak a language other than English; leading to gaps in health services associated with formal and informal caregivers’ experiences caring for this population in the community. One of the challenges of caring for multilingual and bilingual older adults with dementia is that they revert to their primary language as dementia progresses (McMurtray, Saito & Nakamoto, 2009; Hyltenstam & Viberg, 1993).
Constructivist Grounded Theory was applied to guide this study as it focused on determining how care was provided to multilingual older adults with dementia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with caregivers from varying cultural and linguistic backgrounds as they attempted to make connections with their patients and care for this population. A total of 14 caregivers were interviewed; some were family caregivers, others were formal/paid healthcare providers. The caregivers discussed several challenges that occur within the process of cultural translation. The process of cultural translation occurs as the informal caregivers, usually family members seek services in the community. The role of the cultural translator is to educate formal caregivers and providers on varying cultures such as Greek, Italian and Japanese cultural norms (Roche-Dean, 2018). The themes that emerged from this study included: Cultural Translator, Presence, Rigid healthcare system, Seeking help, Cultural identity and Mitigating relationships. These findings indicate a need to increase access to interpreters across healthcare settings. They highlight the intricate relationship between language and culture (Sapir, 2004; Tassavor & Chen, 2018) Lastly, they indicate the importance for caregivers to be aware that language and culture can affect patient/caregiver interactions when the patient has dementia (Hertzberg & Ekman, 2000).