Yet policy-makers have concluded it is not so important to these individuals, ranking it fourth in importance. As a group, they tend to age well. They maintain their physical health by keeping active and working as long as possible. When the disabled cannot leave their home and want religious services, a group of women comes to visit to help them say prayers. But generally, they are lonely and distrustful.
Fear of crime fills their lives.
They cope by playing dominoes on the sidewalk, erecting small altars in their homes, visiting spiritualists, or listening to Latin music. They are unaware of or under-use available government support. Freidenberg argues that policy-makers too often rely on broad surveys of population groups, leading them to incorrect conclusions about specific neighborhoods or communities. She argues that survey results need a fine-tuning possible through the kind of intense, ethnographic study she and other anthropologists perform.