Our Stories, Our Health | New Routes | Using local media made by immigrants to improve the health of immigrants

Our Stories, Our Health

Using self-made media to improve the health of Laotians and Vietnamese immigrants

Update

Philadelphia New Routes Project Presented at National Conference

The Philadelphia New Routes project, "Media partnerships for community engagement in Southeast Asian health," was highlighted at a national conference in San Francisco, CA. The session, held on 7/24/2008, was entitled, "Increasing the Voice of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders through Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and Community-Based Participatory Programs (CBPP)." This was part of a 3-day meeting, The Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Cancer Survivorship Conference: Dispelling Myths, Reducing Disparities & Providing Hope (APIA Health Forum and API National Cancer Survivors Network). Read More

Elder with Camera, Elders in WHYY Learning Lab, Elders Conducting Personal Interviews

Our Stories, Our Health aims to engage immigrant Laotian and Vietnamese seniors in the process of health needs identification, first-person storytelling, video production, and community discussion about health. They will create short videos using recorded narratives of immigrant health experiences, design workshops using the videos to engage communities in discussions led by immigrant seniors, and educate health professionals and the general public about health disparities and barriers faced by immigrant seniors.

Partners: Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, Temple University Center for Intergenerational Learning, Thomas Jefferson University, Department of Health Policy, University of Pennsylvania Department of Family Medicine & Community Health, WHYY

Vietnamese Americans who came to the United States as political refugees are suffering from higher rates of mental health problems than non-Latino whites, an indication that many Vietnamese Americans are experiencing lingering effects from the Vietnam War, according to a UC Irvine Center for Health Care Policy study.

In the first analysis of its kind for Vietnamese Americans in California, researchers found that Vietnamese Americans over 55 were twice as likely as whites to report needing mental health care, but were less likely to discuss such issues with their doctors.

"The message I want to bring across is that the medical community needs to realize that Vietnamese Americans are a high-risk group," said Dr. Read More

Social Services Reach Out to Vietnamese Community in California

Groups are finding culturally sensitive ways to give health care advice to clients with different values and traditions. Read More

New Routes Philadelphia Project Launch a Great Success!

On March 26, 2008, the Philadelphia New Routes team officially launched the Media Partnerships for Community Engagement in Southeast Asian Health at WHYY TV12 studio. Read More

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