Reassessing cultural evaluations in geriatrics: insights from cultural psychiatry.
Current cultural competency models in geriatrics represent positive developments but may focus disproportionately on group-level information without attending to intracultural, individual variations. This article reviews these limitations and introduces the cultural formulation from psychiatry as a more-thorough assessment strategy. By focusing on the patient's relationships with cultural identity, illness explanations, social networks, and the physician, a cultural formulation designed for geriatrics may help clinicians plan treatment and follow-up in a more-comprehensive and -patient-centered way. Detailed case studies illustrate its potential applications within geriatrics.
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. neil.aggarwal@yale.edu
Neil Krishan
NK
Aggarwal
D000368:Aged; D054521:Cultural Competency; D005008:Ethnopsychology; D005260:Female; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires