Culturally sensitive care for elderly immigrants through ethnic community health workers: design and development of a community based intervention programme in the Netherlands

Background In Western countries, health and social welfare facilities are not easily accessible for elderly immigrants and their needs are suboptimally addressed. A transition is needed towards culturally sensitive services to overcome barriers to make cure and care accessible for elderly immigrants. We developed an intervention programme in which ethnic community health workers act as liaisons between immigrant elderly and local health care and social welfare services. In this study we evaluate the effectiveness and the implementation of this intervention programme. Methods/design In a quasi... Mehr ...