AWARENESS AND UTILIZATION OF COMMUNITY LONG-TERM-CARE SERVICES BY ELDERLY KOREAN AND NON-HISPANIC WHITE AMERICANS

This article presents a comparative analysis of the level of awareness and utilization of 15 community-based long-term care services by 213 elderly Korean and 201 non-Hispanic White Americans. We found extremel y low levels of awareness and utilization of longterm health and socia l services among Korean Americans, in both absolute and relative terms . This finding challenges the success of the Older Americans Act, an i mportant funding source of those services, in meeting its stated objec tives to increase service availability and delivery to minority elders and socioeconomically disadvantaged elders. Strategies for effective outreach and public education efforts are also discussed.