Words matter: an examination of terminology to define culturally informed dementia caregiving interventions

Despite the documented reliance on family caregivers, systems and programming to support family caregivers are often not inclusive, nor do they provide culturally relevant opportunities. Cultural factors, in part, may be useful to understanding disparities in care outcomes and to inform support mechanisms for caregivers. However, there is lack of specificity of terminology to describe how culture is considered in dementia care interventions. The purpose of this Forum manuscript is to clarify the meaning of the terminology of culture (i.e., cultural tailoring, cultural adaptation) and to provide exemplars of evidenced-based supports that utilized the term in dementia caregiving support. This work aims to demonstrate the importance of culturally informed interventions to address disparities in care outcomes and to offer best practices to advance the science of culturally informed dementia care interventions.