Networking Southeast Asians with Regional Adult Service Agencies

Introduction
Our group decided to focus our community project on regional adult service agencies and the services that they provide to the Southeast Asian population. Over the past two semesters, we have conducted intensive research. Each member in our group focused their research on different issues evolving within the Southeast Asian population and their main needs for services from regional adult service agencies. The issues that we focused on were: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the spiritual world of Shamanism vs. western culture medicine, Iu-Mien Shamanism vs. today’s modern medicine practice, and Hmong elders who are too mentally ill to work.

Statement of Need:
With all of the intense research that we have performed, our conclusion of the significant unmet needs of the Southeast Asian population are as listed: language barriers, cultural incompetence, lack of knowledge regarding resources that are available, and lack of knowledge about their mental illnesses. According to Goetz (2001), the Hmong population “will not acknowledge symptoms as symptoms of a mental illness. Instead they’ll look at their symptoms representing a physical ailment, or they might even think of it as demons” (Goetz, 2001, para. 9). The developmental stages of this project have shown us that this population is highly unaware of the services from regional adult service agencies due to their lack of knowledge of their illnesses. We found that the population tends to hold back from obtaining services from regional adult service agencies due to the fear that they will be stigmatized and stereotyped. According to the two clients that we interviewed, there are several stigmas attached to Hmong clients who obtain services from regional adult service agencies. According to Client One,

I hear people from the Hmong community say all the time that we only come to the regional adult service agency because we want the people here [service providers at the regional adult service agency] to help us get SSI money. They do not understand that we are sick and that we do need help from the doctors and workers here. It makes me feel ashamed sometimes knowing that people think I am lying so that I can get money. That is not true at all (personal communication, October 15, 2004).

In order for us to reach out and enhance the services provided through regional adult service agencies, we need to assist this population in their process of eliminating and/or decreasing their negative perspective towards regional adult service agencies. In addition to assisting the population, it is also important to educate the service providers about these issues so that they will have a profound knowledge and understanding of the needs of this population.

Description of Intervention:
Our first intervention was for each group member to interview two direct service providers from regional adult service agencies. The interview questions focused on what the direct service providers felt were the main concerns and needs of the Southeast Asian population. Direct Service Provider One specified that being culturally competent and understanding the level of cultural background between both the client and the employees are extremely important. According to Direct Service Provider Two, it is important to have “high quality communication is that both parties feel like they are being heard and understood. Words themselves constitute a very small percentage of communication. It is therefore of vital importance to understand the concepts of both universal language and culturally specific language” (personal communication, October 15, 2004). Our second intervention was for each group member to interview two clients that were currently receiving services from regional adult service agencies. The interview questions consisted of which services the clients felt were beneficial to them and which ones were not. In addition, we also asked the clients to identify what skills they felt the service providers lacked resulting in their needs not being met by regional adult service agencies. For our third intervention, we conducted a two-hour workshop at the Butte County Library in Chico, California where we informed participants who attended the workshop (thirteen being Hmong) about the results of our research. We also collected verbal feedback about whether they agreed or disagreed with our results from our research, which pertained to the needs of the Southeast Asian population.

The method that we used to notify the Southeast Asian population about our workshop was through announcements on the local Hmong radio station (KZFR). We also made phone calls to the Hmong leaders and Hmong families within the region, and distributed announcement flyers to the general public. We received support from our local Safeway grocery store and the Social Work Club at California State University, Chico. They made generous donations towards our workshop.

We found that one of the most beneficial tools we had during the workshop was that we were bilingual, fluently speaking both Hmong or Mien and English. The participants at the workshop were able to communicate freely with us without having to worry about language barriers. Not only did the participants state their concerns towards mental health issues, but they also elaborated intensely on their concerns about physical health issues as well. The participants were able to give us several suggestions about the services from regional adult service agencies.

Evaluation of the Interventions:
We concluded that all of the research that we did was useful and beneficial for the population, regional adult service agencies, and us. The research will assist regional adult service agencies towards enhancing their services to better meet the needs of the population. We received positive feedback from the participants regarding our research outcomes that we presented to them. Furthermore, for the remaining time that we have left with the regional adult service agencies, we will continue to inform the service providers about the concerns and needs that were expressed by all of the participants from the workshop and the clients that were interviewed. We will also continue to distribute our research results to the general public, particularly the Southeast Asian population. In addition, we hope that the regional adult service agencies will continue to provide their support for the Southeast Asian population.

Reflection on the Project:
Reflecting on the past two semesters, we initially did not think that we would be capable of conducting a workshop. Even if we were, we did not expect for many participants to attend the workshop. The turnout of the workshop was a success and we received a large group of participants who came to support us and to hear the information that we had to share. Even though we are only young educators, the participants were very respectful towards us. There was such a tremendous amount of engaging interaction between the participants and us, which indicated that the participants were interested in what they were hearing and wanted to know more. As a group, we feel that the workshop has made a difference in those who participated, as well as towards their perception of regional adult service agencies and its beneficial services.

Reference
Goetz, K. (2001). Hmong face cultural hurdles to mental health care. Retrieve September 15, 2004 from: http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2000108/27_goetzk_shaman/