West Marin Senior Services is expanding its outreach efforts to be more inclusive of Spanish-speakers in the community, promoting its services in both English and Spanish and adding language support and translation. 

“We just want to make sure that the people in our community who are Spanish speaking, for whom English is a second language, understand that the services are available for them and that there is no exposure if they are fearful of government interactions,” said Skip Schwartz, the organization’s executive director.

The Point Reyes Station nonprofit offers home-delivered meals, care-manager home visits, home-care referrals, transportation for medical appointments, and classes and events such as senior lunch, a 25-year-old tradition that recently returned to the Dance Palace as a monthly event. Other than some classes, its services are offered free of charge for qualifying residents in West Marin.

Staff at the organization say they are now working to overcome cultural barriers, including stigmas associated with accessing social benefit programs, that may prevent immigrants and other Latino residents from engaging their support, Mr. Schwartz said. 

The group does not collect personal information and does not require any proof of citizenship, social security numbers or formal documentation. To sign up for services, residents need to be 60 years or older and provide a name, date of birth, contact information and mailing address. These records are not digitized, and they are filed away under lock and key.

Currently, Latinos take advantage of the organization’s medical equipment loan program, which offers free devices like canes, crutches and walkers on a temporary basis. The organization hopes to see more Latino community members access additional services.

Mauricio Torres-Benavides, the development coordinator and bilingual specialist at W.M.S.S., emphasized the need to discuss the cultural implications of seeking out care and services within the Latino community.

Spanish-speakers who can no longer work often move away for their retirement, looking to spend their sunset years back in their motherland. Additionally, younger generations across Latin America are expected to care for their elders. Going outside of the family to seek assistance can be viewed as an embarrassing act that defies cultural tradition and social norms.

“This is something that needs to be brought out into the open because there is a cultural underpinning that family gets taken care of by family, and it’s not someone else’s responsibility. It’s the family’s,” he said.

Yet becoming a relative’s primary care manager can be a daunting task for those who are not familiar with the time-intensive role. Like any full-time job, it can be exhausting. Anyone who has ever had to care for a homebound relative quickly realizes this, Mr. Torres-Benavides said. 

Care is often provided by multiple people, he said. “Within Latino families, there is a sense that it’s not just the daughters’ and sons’ responsibilities,” he said. “It’s the entire family’s community”—aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, and cousins.  

Expectations of familial care can tie a sense of guilt and embarrassment to the idea of requesting support from outside service providers. Picking up the phone to call Mr. Torres-Benavides for support in Spanish can amount to breaking an unwritten rule in Latin American cultures.

Families who qualify for free support services may also restrict themselves due to the stigma of receiving social benefits. This is something that other West Marin service providers experience, too.

“In general, there can be an apprehension to receiving services because it can be viewed as weakness,” said Sarah Thorp, the resource center manager at West Marin Community Services. “There’s this stigma of receiving services, as if being in hardship is shameful.”

Such sentiments are exacerbated in areas with massive wealth inequalities like Marin County, so there is a need to deconstruct public perceptions of social welfare programs, Ms. Thorp said. 

Today’s political climate further complicates the distribution of support services, as fear looms over social welfare programs, leading people to believe that signing up for any sort of assistance will attract unwanted attention, especially from immigration authorities. But West Marin’s social service organizations are non-governmental agencies, so all their information is kept confidential to ensure the safety of the community.

Although it may be tradition to care for the elders in the family, Mr. Schwartz believes there may come a time when the young caregiver needs a break, and that it is wrong to assume that everyone always has someone to take care of them.

“There may be other people that are being left out, and cultures change,” he said. 

To learn more about the care and services offered by West Marin Senior Services, call Mauricio Torres-Benavides at (415) 663.8148 ext. 104.