Bridging community and health systems: Understanding family-provided dementia care in the Filipino immigrant community

Objective: The family plays a crucial role in providing essential care for persons living with dementia, particularly among immigrant populations in Canada. There is a need to examine family care from cultural perspectives, as caregiving motivations and practices may be influenced by cultural values, knowledge, and resources. Canada has a large population of immigrants from the Philippines, and as this population ages, dementia care is becoming an important part of the family care experience. Filipino families hold strong caregiving traditions, yet little is known about their care processes and experiences navigating dementia care services.

 

The specific aim of this study is to co-design research with the Filipino community to 1) explore family care processes in the Filipino community, 2) identify family care assets and their limits, and 3) uncover points of connection/disconnection between family care and publicly provided health care.

 

Approach: This community-based research project is co-designed by an advisory group that includes Filipino community leaders and carers. Policy makers have been involved from the outset and participate at stages determined by the advisory group. The co-design process included community consultations, iterative feedback on study tools, and collaborative decision-making about recruitment and data collection strategies. Through this process, it was decided to conduct intergenerational family group interviews with families providing care for persons living with dementia, followed by individual interviews with family members.

 

 Interview data are analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Subsequently, a world café method will be used to facilitate structured conversations with community members to discuss next steps, focusing on community assets for dementia care, the limitations of those assets, and strategies for improving interactions with healthcare services to better support family-provided dementia care in the Filipino community.

 

Results: Preliminary findings describe the co-design process with the Filipino community, including the feasibility and acceptability of the chosen research methods for studying dementia care within family groups. Emerging insights highlight the importance of destigmatizing dementia as a motivation for community participation and the need for flexibility and choice in how and when to participate in research. Thematic analysis is ongoing and will describe family care processes, community assets and limitations, and points of connection and disconnection between community and health care systems.

 

Implications: Little is known about family-provided dementia care among immigrant populations and results will inform policy makers and health system leaders about opportunities for better integration between community/family care and formal healthcare systems. In addition, this community-based approach empowers Filipino community members to address concerns in culturally meaningful ways, strengthening the community’s capacity to shape and sustain dementia care practices that reflect their values and needs.