U-M-D CASL will study aging Arabs, Chaldeans

U-M-Dearborn's College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters (CASL) has received a $198,522 grant from the Detroit Area Agency on Aging (DAAA) to conduct two research projects on elderly Arabs and Chaldeans in Wayne County.

The first project is a needs assessment to look at the services provided to the county's elderly people. The second project will look to improve access to and the quality of mental health and health support services.

"The overall goal of these projects will be to improve the quality of life for underserved elderly populations," says Paul Wong, CASL dean, who is the principal investigator of the projects. Mike Simowski, executive director of the Senior Alliance, and Susan Wisler in the Wayne County Office on Aging, were instrumental in helping CASL apply for and receive this grant, Wong says.

The Senior Alliance is a private nonprofit agency designated as both an Area Agency on Aging and an Organized Health Care Delivery System to serve western and southern Wayne County.

The U-M-Dearborn studies are responses to the changing senior citizen demographics in Wayne County, Wong says. Wayne County gained nearly 3,000 older adults in the 1990s. Many of these immigrated to this area from the Middle East: more than 1,100 refugees older than 60 live in Wayne County, according to the DAAA. These elderly and their families may be unaware of or unable to access basic community services due to language and other cultural barriers, according to the Agency on Aging.

The U-M-Dearborn study will focus on the needs of the Arab and Chaldean elderly people for social and health services. It will be conducted through interviews with the elderly and the social workers and health service providers serving this population.

The findings will be used to make recommendations for more effective social and health services for the Arab and Chaldean elderly, Wong says.

"These projects will help to improve the nutritional and health care status of underserved elderly populations, ensure that services are of high quality and more responsive to the needs of these populations, and help to reduce caregiver stress," he says.

A second project will focus on addressing the accuracy of the diagnostic screening tools currently used to identify mental health problems and dementia within the context of the Arabic culture. Commonly used instruments may not have been translated correctly or may not take into consideration patients' cultural backgrounds.

Nancy Wrobel, associate professor of psychology, will lead the mental health study. Wrobel specializes in psychopathology in adults and children, as well as assessment and diagnostic decisions.

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