scholarly journals Technology Is out There for the Betterment of Us: African American Family Caregivers and COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 468-468
Author(s):  
Afeez Hazzan ◽  
Carol D'Agostino ◽  
Phyllis Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
African American ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Black Family ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
African American Family ◽  
American Family ◽  
People With Dementia

Abstract Unpaid family caregivers are mostly responsible for bearing the costs associated with caring for older adults with dementia. Importantly, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created unforeseen challenges for many family caregivers. Specifically, the restrictions put in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus may be exacerbating the challenges faced by these caregivers as they try to navigate the system. Further, studies have shown that family caregivers who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group such as African-Americans or Hispanics face unique challenges when caring for their loved ones. Additional challenges may include socioeconomic disadvantages, health disparities, and language barriers that make it more difficult to access healthcare and social services. In this study, we examined the perspectives of African-American family caregivers of older adults on the feasibility of utilizing technology as a coping strategy (including for research participation) during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The research question was: What are the perspectives of African-American family caregivers of people with dementia on the feasibility, opportunities, and challenges of technology as a means to engage family caregivers during a pandemic? In-depth one-on-one interviews were conducted with 12 African-American/black family caregivers. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data yielded the following three themes: (1) Acceptance that technology will play a greater role in the world going forward, and family caregivers need to adapt; (2) Opportunities to avoid social isolation while maintaining links with critical community resources; and (3) Challenges due to possible loss of privacy and lack of physical interactions

Epilogue

2020 ◽  
pp. 282-290
Author(s):  
Libra R. Hilde
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Family ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Black Masculinity ◽  
African American Family ◽  
American Family ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Black Fathers ◽  
The World ◽  
Dominant Narratives

As Americans grapple with the most recent spate of deaths of African American men and women at the hands of the police, we are once again confronting damaging stereotypes about the Black family and Black masculinity rooted in the legacy of slavery. This book explores the masculine hierarchy of slavery that continues to influence current attitudes and shape public policy. Even as the world has changed, attitudes about human hierarchies have remained deeply entrenched. By telling the story of the often quietly heroic efforts that enslaved and free men undertook to be fathers, this book offers a counterpoint to the dominant narratives about the pathology of the African American family and absent Black fathers.

scholarly journals Impact of Two Psychosocial Interventions on White and African American Family Caregivers of Individuals With Dementia

2003 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 568-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Burgio ◽  
Alan Stevens ◽  
Delois Guy ◽  
David L. Roth ◽  
William E. Haley
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Psychosocial Interventions ◽  
African American Family ◽  
American Family

scholarly journals Advance care treatment plan (ACT-Plan) for African American family caregivers: A pilot study

Dementia ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria J Bonner ◽  
Edward Wang ◽  
Diana J Wilkie ◽  
Carol E Ferrans ◽  
Barbara Dancy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Treatment Plan ◽  
African American Family ◽  
American Family ◽  
Care Treatment ◽  
Advance Care

Knock, Knock the Hustle: Resisting Commercialism in the African American Family Film

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Britt
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Black Family ◽  
Entertainment Industry ◽  
African American Family ◽  
Lottery Ticket ◽  
American Family ◽  
Value System ◽  
Alternative Sources

This chapter investigates the African American family film for portraits of black family life. Providing an analysis of three commercially-unsuccessful films – Louis C.K. Pootie Tang, Lance Rivera’s The Perfect Holiday, and Erik White’s Lottery Ticket – this chapter explores the means by which these films satirize the “supercapitalist” value system permeating the entertainment industry. These films point to alternative sources of happiness and fulfilment existing outside those provided by material comfort.

Reduced care burden and improved quality of life in African American family caregivers: Positive impact of personalized assistive technology

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Monica W. Parker ◽  
Crystal Davis ◽  
Kaylin White ◽  
Devon Johnson ◽  
Matt Golden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
African American Family ◽  
American Family ◽  
Care Burden

BACKGROUND: African Americans living with dementia are considered less likely to seek formal institutionalized elder care and more likely to be managed in the home by family-member caregivers. Assistive technologies (the use of smart visual devices like tablets and phones) can be used effectively to guide memory-impaired individuals with a sequence of pictures showing steps to complete activities of daily living, e.g., bathing, toileting, dressing. Assistive technology so far has not been generally embraced in African American communities. OBJECTIVES: Determine, if African American family caregivers, given the opportunity, would embrace the use of assistive technology and if they would perceive its use beneficial. METHODS: We assessed a group of eight family caregivers’ overall care-burden scores, and their user-satisfaction scores after using assistive technology for three months. RESULTS: We found significant reduction in caregiver burden, positive changes in behavior and emotion scores, and high ratings on user satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: The findings reported here comprise the first systematic study of the use of assistive technology by caregivers in an underserved population. They set the stage for exploring meaningful strategies and variables that will better engage underserved populations to take advantage of assistive technologies available in healthcare.

Rural-Urban Differences in Black Family Structure

1995 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
HAYWARD DERRICK HORTON ◽  
MELVIN E. THOMAS ◽  
CEDRIC HERRING
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Family Structure ◽  
Black Family ◽  
Community Type ◽  
African American Family ◽  
American Family ◽  
Poverty Status ◽  
Urban Counterpart ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Moynihan Report

The nature and structure of the African American family continues to be a topic of importance in sociology. Since the much-maligned Moynihan report of the 1960s, sociologists have linked Black family structure to persisting disadvantage. However, the overwhelming majority of past studies have focused on the urban Black family. Accordingly, this article employs data from the 1990 Public Use Microdata Samples to compare the rural African American family to its urban counterpart. Results from the logistic regression analysis reveal that for rural Blacks, family structure is less important than community type and race relative to poverty status. These findings suggest a need for a refinement of the underclass debate.

Abstract P588: A Rare RNF213 Variant is Associated With Moyamoya Disease in an African American Family

Stroke ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Abimbola Sunmonu ◽  
Matthew Thomas ◽  
Robin Ulep ◽  
Naveen A Ambati ◽  
Bradford B Worrall
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Moyamoya Disease ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black Family ◽  
Asymptomatic Carrier ◽  
Susceptibility Gene ◽  
African American Family ◽  
American Family ◽  
Cerebral Angiogram ◽  
Cerebrovascular Imaging

Objective: To investigate potential genetic susceptibility for moyamoya disease (MMD) in an African American family. Methods: A young girl with MMD (proband), her father and paternal half-brother underwent cerebrovascular imaging with MRI and MRA. Cerebral angiography was also performed on the girl and her father. Genetic analysis of the MMD susceptibility gene RNF213 was conducted on all three relatives, while ACTA2 gene was analysed in the proband only. Results: The proband presented with pseudobulbar affect and chorea, then subsequently had a right hemispheric ischaemic stroke and rapid, ultimately fatal clinical decline. Detailed family history raised suspicion for familial MMD and investigation of her relatives. Her father had a small haemorrhagic thalamic stroke without residual neurologic deficits; a clinically silent ischaemic infarct was incidentally discovered on neuroimaging. He remains clinically stable despite slowly progressive disease on imaging. Her brother is neurologically intact and has normal cerebrovascular imaging to date. They are all heterozygous for the rare Arg4131Cys variant in RNF213. They are the first Black people and only the 3rd, 4th and 5th people in the world known to harbour this variant. MMD was confirmed in the girl and her father with cerebral angiogram. Conclusions: This study illuminates the clinical and genetic complexity of familial MMD. It underscores the importance of genetic testing and surveillance cerebrovascular imaging even in asymptomatic relatives of probands with MMD. Although the clinical significance of Arg4131Cys remains unclear, modest variant-disease segregation in this family is consistent with a growing body of evidence supporting its probable pathogenicity. Furthermore, our study illustrates its wide phenotypic spectrum, from asymptomatic carrier to late presenting, mild disease to fulminant, rapidly fatal childhood disease. To our knowledge, this is also the first report of heritable MMD in a Black family. We demonstrate the value of considering diseases more predominant in one specific ancestry when evaluating patients from other ethnic backgrounds. Finally, we highlight the importance of racially and ethnically diverse participants in biomedical research.

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