Striving To End Vietnamese Community’s Hesitancy Toward Mental Health Care
The aversion in the community is so strong that the Vietnamese Community of Orange County’s clinic doesn’t advertise its mental health program by that name.
The Orange County Register:
In Vietnamese American Community, The Stigma Of Mental Illness Runs Deep
[Lanie] Tran is just one example of how mental health stigma devastates Vietnamese American families, a majority of whom have been affected by the multiple traumas wrought by war – imprisonment, torture in concentration camps – uprooting their families, fleeing by boat as they fended off pirates and braved turbulent seas, and eventually reestablishing their lives in a different country. This expatriate community’s refugee experience and their long process of acculturation play an important role when it comes to mental health issues and the stigma surrounding them, said Kim Xuyen Ngo, a clinician and counselor with the Vietnamese Community of Orange County. (Bharath, 9/2)