This dissertation revolves around the older and younger Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands. Specifically, the topic of study was the wellbeing of the older Chinese immigrants, and cultural elements as filial piety may play part in the in the wellbeing of this population.Comparative studies regarding frailty, loneliness and Quality of Life were conducted in China and the Netherlands, among older Chinese adults. In general, the older Chinese immigrant adults are predominantly socially vulnerable, such as a high prevalence of loneliness, whereas the native Chinese adults report a high prevalence of frailty. A second cross-national study provided insights in the cross-cultural equivalence of the De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale among the native and diasporic older Chinese adults.The cultural element filial piety is found to be relevant both to the first- and second-generation Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands. It is specifically of importance to the mental wellbeing of the older first-generation Chinese immigrants. Moreover, a qualitative study shows that filial piety frames how filial caregiving takes place among the second-generation Chinese immigrants. Lastly, a normative filial piety scale was translated to Dutch and psychometric validated among second-generation Chinese immigrants.These findings indicate that older Chinese immigrants are socially vulnerable. Secondly, filial piety is of relevance to the Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands. It is of importance to consider these aspects for professionals working both with older and younger Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands.
BACKGROUND: Global migration has increased in the past century, and aging in a foreign country is relevant to the Chinese diaspora.OBJECTIVE: With regard to migration, this study focuses on the places of aging as the context of older Chinese adults. This study aimed to describe the general health and wellbeing of this population with respect to their location.DESIGN: This study has a cross sectional design.SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Participants were recruited who were "aging in place" from Tianjin, China (199 participants), and "aging out of place" from the Netherlands (134 participants). Data from April to May 2019 in China and November 2018 to March 2019 in the Netherlands were aggregated.MEASUREMENTS: frailty, QoL and loneliness were used in both samples.RESULTS: T-tests and regression analyses demonstrated that social domains of frailty and QoL, as well as loneliness and frailty prevalence characterized the major differences between both places of aging. A correlation analysis and visual correlation network revealed that frailty, quality of life (QoL), and loneliness were more closely related in the aging out of place sample. Social domains of frailty and QoL, as well as the prevalence of loneliness and frailty, characterized the major differences between both places of aging.CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that frailty, QoL, and loneliness have a complex relationship, confirming that loneliness is a major detriment to the general wellbeing of older Chinese adults aging out of place. This study examined the places of aging of the larger Chinese population and allows a comprehensive understanding of health and wellbeing. The social components, especially loneliness, among the aging out of place Chinese community should receive more attention practice and clinical wise. On the other hand, frailty as well as its prevention is of more importance for the Chinese community aging in place.
Filial piety is important to Chinese adults and is associated with mental health among older Chinese immigrants in the United States. However, it is unclear whether filial piety is linked to the mental health of Chinese immigrants in European countries. Therefore, this study aims to gain insights into the association between mental health and filial piety of first-generation Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands. A random sample of 143 participants took part in the study. A cross-sectional design was used. Data were collected through a postal survey conducted in the Chinese language between January 2021 and March 2021. The survey included a Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC), and expected and perceived filial piety scale. The results indicated that in general, perceived filial piety exceeded expected filial piety ('filial piety sufficient'). Regression analysis revealed that 'filial piety sufficient' is associated with a higher emotional MHC (B =.498, p =.035). This study provided new insights into the wellbeing of older Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands and showed accordance with the literature that filial piety remains an important factor for mental health.
The project aims to improve palliative care in China through the competence development of Chinese teachers, professionals, and students focusing on the horizontal priority of digital transformation.Palliative care (PC) has been recognised as a public health priority, and during recent years, has seen advances in several aspects. However, severe inequities in the access and availability of PC worldwide remain. Annually, approximately 56.8 million people need palliative care, where 25.7% of the care focuses on the last year of person’s life (Connor, 2020).China has set aims for reaching the health care standards of the developed countries by 2030 through the Healthy China Strategy 2030, where one of the improvement areas in health care includes palliative care, thus continuing the previous efforts.The project provides a constructive, holistic, and innovative set of actions aimed at resulting in lasting outcomes and continued development of palliative care education and services. Raising the awareness of all stakeholders on palliative care, including the public, is highly relevant and needed. Evidence based practice guidelines and education are urgently required for both general and specialised palliative care levels, to increase the competencies for health educators, professionals, and students. This is to improve the availability and quality of person-centered palliative care in China. Considering the aging population, increase in various chronic illnesses, the challenging care environment, and the moderate health care resources, competence development and the utilisation of digitalisation in palliative care are paramount in supporting the transition of experts into the palliative care practice environment.General objective of the project is to enhance the competences in palliative care in China through education and training to improve the quality of life for citizens. Project develops the competences of current and future health care professionals in China to transform the palliative care theory and practice to impact the target groups and the society in the long-term. As recognised by the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC), palliative care competences need to be developed in collaboration. This includes shared willingness to learn from each other to improve the sought outcomes in palliative care (EAPC 2019). Since all individuals have a right to health care, project develops person-centered and culturally sensitive practices taking into consideration ethics and social norms. As concepts around palliative care can focus on physical, psychological, social, or spiritual related illnesses (WHO 2020), project develops innovative pedagogy focusing on evidence-based practice, communication, and competence development utilising digital methods and tools. Concepts of reflection, values and views are in the forefront to improve palliative care for the future. Important aspects in project development include health promotion, digital competences and digital health literacy skills of professionals, patients, and their caregivers. Project objective is tied to the principles of the European Commission’s (EU) Digital Decade that stresses the importance of placing people and their rights in the forefront of the digital transformation, while enhancing solidarity, inclusion, freedom of choice and participation. In addition, concepts of safety, security, empowerment, and the promotion of sustainable actions are valued. (European Commission: Digital targets for 2030).Through the existing collaboration, strategic focus areas of the partners, and the principles of the call, the PalcNet project consortium was formed by the following partners: JAMK University of Applied Sciences (JAMK ), Ramon Llull University (URL), Hanze University of Applied Sciences (HUAS), Beijing Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), Guangzhou Health Science College (GHSC), Beihua University (BHU), and Harbin Medical University (HMU). As project develops new knowledge, innovations and practice through capacity building, finalisation of the consortium considered partners development strategy regarding health care, (especially palliative care), ability to create long-term impact, including the focus on enhancing higher education according to the horizontal priority. In addition, partners’ expertise and geographical location was also considered important to facilitate long-term impact of the results.Primary target groups of the project include partner country’s (China) staff members, teachers, researchers, health care professionals and bachelor level students engaging in project implementation. Secondary target groups include those groups who will use the outputs and results and continue in further development in palliative care upon the lifetime of the project.
The GeNEdu project aims to renew nursing curricula through building capacities of the Chinese partner institutions to develop gerontological nursing education for future health care professionals to meet the needs of the ageing society in China. It is financed from the Erasmus+ Programme, Key Action 2, Capacity Building in the Field of Higher Education 2019.
Business relations between Brainport organisations and their partners based in China have been growing rapidly. This postdoc project explores the Sino-Dutch corporate communicative strategies in the intercultural and geo-political context. Adopting discourse analysis and design-based research methods, the research aims to develop effective communication strategies for organisations in Brainport. Probing the geo-political, intercultural and digital challenges, the project provides a framework and insights in terms of corporate communication in the intercultural settings. Based on the results, the publications, the teaching activities, and the public talks, this research will generate future research leads and more societal discussions on the interplay between intercultural and business communicative strategies. Furthermore, this research engages the teaching activities through lectures and workshops at Fontys School of Business and Communication. Engaging the students in various learning activities, I will encourage the learning groups to participate and experiment in a hybrid learning environment at Fontys. I will lead a research project team in our minor China and World Economy, and encourage the learning group to participate and experiment in a hybrid learning environment at Fontys.
