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Exploring the Role of Ethnic Media and the Community Readiness to Combat Stigma Attached to Mental Illness Among Vietnamese Immigrants: The Pilot Project Tam An (Inner Peace in Vietnamese)

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Abstract

Vietnamese Americans are at high risk for developing mental health disorders due to multiple risk factors such as trauma and acculturative stress. However, the utilization of mental health services has been low. The pilot project Tam An was implemented to raise mental health awareness by engaging community resources in the Vietnamese population. Informed by the Community Readiness Model and through local ethnic media sources, messages to destigmatize mental health and promote the willingness to initiate mental health treatment were presented. Using an exploratory perspective, findings from focus group data suggest that the project improved the community’s stage of readiness.

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Notes

  1. AARS provides culturally and linguistically competent health and mental health services to diverse groups and has been one of the most proactive community-based agencies serving Vietnamese with mental health problems in the Bay Area, Northern California. As of January 1. 2014, AARS officially merged with HealthRIGHT 360 and become a program of HealthRIGHT360, a San Francisco based nonprofit that gives hope, builds health, and changes lives for people in need by providing compassionate, integrated care, that includes primary medical, mental health, and substance use disorder treatment.

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Acknowledgment

The pilot project Tam An was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Grant # 61049 to Asian American Recovery Services (AARS) Inc. This funding source had no involvement in the preparation of this article and the writing of the report or the decision to submit this article for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, 95192, USA

    Meekyung Han

  2. Vietnamese Mental Health Network (VMHN), San Jose, CA, USA

    Lien Cao

  3. Asian American Recovery Services, Inc./HealthRIGHT 360, 1735 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, USA

    Karen Anton

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  1. Meekyung Han
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  2. Lien Cao
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  3. Karen Anton
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Correspondence to Meekyung Han.

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Han, M., Cao, L. & Anton, K. Exploring the Role of Ethnic Media and the Community Readiness to Combat Stigma Attached to Mental Illness Among Vietnamese Immigrants: The Pilot Project Tam An (Inner Peace in Vietnamese). Community Ment Health J 51, 63–70 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-014-9745-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-014-9745-4

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