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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2172
igaa057.2172
Abstracts
Session 5815 (Symposium)
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Exploring Community Leaders’ Understanding and Attitudes Toward Depression Among Older Korean Americans
Kim Eunhye  
Augusta University, Augusta, Georgia, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”634 635
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
This study explores community leaders’ understanding and attitudes toward depression among older Korean Americans. The community leaders who provide services for older adults play a significant role because these leaders typically engage with the target population by providing services. A qualitative method was applied for this study. A total of 12 community leaders were interviewed for 60 minutes using the semi-structured interview guide. The constant comparative approach was employed to analyze data using NVivo software. The findings indicated that the community leaders were aware of the severity of the issues, but lacked knowledge regarding depression and had stereotypes against depression. Those leaders identified negative personality issues of people with depression and desired to avoid discussing depression with older adults. The results suggest that interventions are essential to support community leaders and empower them to take actions to provide services to promote understanding of depression in older adults.