CVAHEC Student Project Reports

Dung Huynh
Freeman Scholar Program 2006

Background on Vietnamese US residents:

According to Healthy People 2010, Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) is the fasting growing group in the United States. Currently at about 10.6 million people (approximately 4% of the total US population), AAPIs are projected to reach 41 million by the year 2050 (11% of total US population). AAPIs are from 29 Asian countries and comprised of more than 100 languages.1

Vietnamese population is made of 11% of the total US AAPIs population.2 The vast majority of the 700,000 Vietnam-born living in the US arrived as refugees from 1975 to the present. Three "waves" of refugees were documented. The first wave of refugees arrived here after the collapse of Thieu regime to communist control in 1975. The second and more diverse group escaped on boats from Vietnam from 1979-1983. The third wave arrived from 1985 to 1991 by ways of US family reunification and Amerasian programs.3

There are about 1400-1500 Vietnamese residents in Chittenden County, and of those 400 are patients at the Community Health Center.4 Focusing on ethnic groups, Healthy People 2010 concentrates on six health areas: infant mortality, immunizations, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, HIV/AIDS, and cancer. Vietnamese, in particular, have many risk factors affecting their health status. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among Vietnamese in the US. Vietnamese women are five times more likely to have cervical cancer than White women. Moreover, Vietnamese are about 11 times more likely to have liver cancer than White Americans.5

 

Summer Projects with Community Health Center

Recognizing the need for improving and increasing resources for the Vietnamese community in Burlington, this past summer I worked with Jon Burgo at the Community Health Center to achieve the following goals:

  1. Providing easier access to CHC appointment line. I translated and recorded a phone greeting/message in Vietnamese for patients. This restructuring of the phone line enables patients to call in and be routed to the appropriate voicemail for them to state their health concerns in their native language, and for an interpreter or receptionist to return their call within 24 hours.
  2. Distributing 250 health surveys to CHC Vietnamese patients in Chittenden County. I worked with the administrative department to collect pertinent information of patients, and then established names and addresses of patients who meet the criteria for the surveys. Criteria includes 18 years of age or older, living in Chittenden County, and a patient at CHC for more than one year. I will not be part of the team that will assess the responses to the surveys.
  3. Promoting Vietnamese health through improving and increasing health brochures/booklets for the Vietnamese community in Burlington. I contacted numerous health agencies and organizations throughout California, and met with various Directors and Community Representatives, discussing my summer project and goals, and requesting Vietnamese brochures/booklets on various health topics including cancers, heart disease, Hepatitis B and C, and smoking cessation.

The following is a list of agencies/organizations that I corresponded with:

From these organizations I was able to collect about 350 brochures/booklets. I organized and labeled these brochures/booklets by health categories and disease names in Vietnamese/English, and placed them in two file boxes.

 

Future Plans - September - December 2006

Community Health Center (CHC) is in a transitional phase where they are searching for and are hiring 1-2 new interpreters along with releasing the current interpreter. Currently, there is a lack of trust among Vietnamese patients with respect to the confidentiality of their health status. In establishing continuity for the resource guide, Mr. Burgo hopes that I can train the Vietnamese interpreter on how to utilize the new resource guide. I would also like to pass along my summer contacts, and show the interpreters how to replenish the resource guide when the brochures/booklets are low.

Mr. Burgo is also hoping that I will attend meetings with health care providers/staff at CHC to promote the resource guide and advocate for their usage in the clinic. I will show them how to access the guide since the labels are in English/Vietnamese, and to provide their patients with the appropriate brochure/booklet.

I am currently brainstorming for my presentation of my summer project for the Freeman Reception. I intend to have a poster, displaying the phone message, along with numerous brochures/booklets that I have gathered. I will also provide some background information on the Vietnamese population and health status in the US. I will then provide information of the current Vietnamese population in Chittenden County as well as at CHC. I will also explain the three goals that I achieved this past summer.

1 Healthy People 2010

2 Healthy People 2010

3 LaBoarde, Pamela: Vietnamese Cultural Profile. University of Washington Harborview Medical Center. July 1996

4 According to the Community Health Center Patient Specialist Jon Burgo

5 UCSF Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project

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The views expressed in the Student Project Reports are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Champlain Valley Area Health Education Center.