In these cases the team can tactfully encourage more cooperation and mutual responsibility. Other families are so closely knit and fiercely independent that they find it difficult to accept volunteers in the home even though help is badly needed. Here, a very slow but friendly approach is required. We must also guard against imposing our own standards and values on the families we serve, and we must always try to avoid being judgmental. Respecting differences between the family and ourselves goes far beyond personality characteristics to ways of behaving that are culturally and ethnically determined.
Some cultures react to a crisis with loud expressions of grief.
This does not mean that they are less stable or less mature than others who are subdued and undemonstrative. On the other hand, someone who shows grief less openly is not necessarily cold or unfeeling. More difficult for the volunteer to tolerate may be the differences in housekeeping standards and cleanliness. Here we must distinguish between a genuine difference in outlook on these matters, and a painful deterioration in the upkeep of the home that has come about through illness and age and that the patient would appreciate having remedied.