Centre for Policy on Ageing



Self-care strategy of elderly Korean immigrants in the Washington DC metropolitan area
Author(s)	K Y C Pang
Journal title	Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, vol 11, no 3, September 1996
Pages	pp 229-254
Keywords	Mental disorder ; Depression ; Attitude ; Immigrants ; United States of America.
Annotation	This study explored the mental health care strategies and self-care patterns of coping among older Korean immigrants in Washington, DC. Findings showed that they use emotional self-care practices to counteract sad and depressive experiences. They tend not to use professional medical help and/or prescription medicine. Their choice of a self-care mental health strategy is a function of several sociocultural and historical factors: the Korean concept of self, life-long caring role, concepts of a morally exemplary emotional life, religious and cosmological beliefs, beliefs about depression and mental illness, systematic and holistic medical principles, and political and social upheavals in Korea. Additional factors include the challenge of transition and immigration to a new culture and country. Specific self-prescribed self-care strategies for depression include cognitive, religious, physical, social and artistic strategies. (AKM).
Accession Number	CPA-980513252 A
Classmark	E: ENR: DP: TJ: 7T
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.