Developing a culturally responsive dementia storybook with Native Hawaiian youth

Abstract: Similar to the nation’s majority and racial/ethnic minority populations, Native  Hawaiian families provide the bulk of care to loved ones with dementia. Limited research has  focused on youth caregivers, who are largely invisible to the eldercare service system. This  knowledge gap is especially critical for Native Hawaiians who place a high value on eldercare,  often provided in multigenerational homes. To address this gap, we describe the process by  which a university-community center developed a culturally responsive storybook on dementia  targeted to Native Hawaiian youth. The development process honored community-based  participatory research principles grounded in the cultural values and practices of Native  Hawaiians, active collaboration of an advisory council, and face-to-face engagement with  Native Hawaiian youth. Future directions are shared about culture-based programming and evaluation in dementia care that may be useful in work with other racial/ethnic youth and  families.