Abstract
Recent research underlines a significant discrepancy between how healthcare professionals interpret culturally competent and sensitive care and the actual experiences of patients with a migration background as well as their informal caregivers.
Despite progresses in healthcare practices, patients and their carers often find their needs unanswered and mostly unmet . Embracing the principles of person-centred care, it becomes imperative to integrate the voices of patients and informal caregivers into healthcare evaluation processes and change management initiatives.
This piece of research seeks to bridge this knowledge gap by exploring how informal caregivers with a migration background perceive the cultural sensitivity of care delivered by healthcare professionals within the framework of delivering integrated care in the community.
The aim is to explore whether the received care aligns with the needs and preferences of informal caregivers. Informal caregivers, as those closest to the care recipients and instrumental in organizing and providing care, provide a deeper perspective to consider in evaluating the cultural competence of healthcare providers and services.
Data collection of this research piece is part of the larger Diverse Elderly Care research project, which focuses on culturally sensitive dementia care for first-generation labour migrants in Brussels. Participants were selected through purposive sampling and identified via a network of community contacts and key individuals. Interviews were conducted in Dutch, French, and or Turkish (with interpreters). The project comprised 17 individual interviews with informal caregivers with a migration background: 9 caregivers with Italian background and 8 with Turkish background. Collective vignettes were used to represent the stories of informal caregivers in the results .
This research aspires to explore and clarify the cultural competence and sensitivity of healthcare services through the perspectives of informal caregivers, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the diverse care needs within our communities.