With
the rapid growth anticipated within the Asian and Pacific Islander
population, it has become increasingly important that those in the health
sector serving these populations seek opportunities to reduce duplication
and increase effectiveness by partnering, sharing and exchanging strategies to
reach target populations.
Health professionals across the country often confront similar challenges in delivering culturally competent health care to this highly diverse population, representing more than 40 distinct ethnicities with varying levels of English language proficiency, socioeconomic status, and cultural integration. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges noted for many of these health professionals (as reported in a recent survey conducted by NAWHO of partner organizations) is the dearth of linguistically and culturally appropriate health resources to meet the health needs of these unique communities.
Financial
constraints and a limited number of specialized culturally competent medical
staff capable of addressing the vast need created by this diversity also
contribute to the complexity of serving this population. Consequently,
health materials are often only translated in a select number of languages and
are not widely available. This poses an even greater challenge for health
professionals serving linguistically-isolated ethnic minorities such as Hmong,
Laotians and Cambodians for whom literacy may also be limited.
In response to
this need, NAWHO has created Health Talk,
a virtual meeting place for members of our online community to engage in
discussion, share resources and create opportunities to improve
the health & well-being within Asian and Pacific Islander
(API) communities.
Health Forum Blog
As a tool to facilitate online discussion, NAWHO has
launched its Health Forum blog to provide opportunities
for those serving API communities to share ideas, challenges, and
strategies for Asian and Pacific Islander communities.
Resource
Sharing Library
NAWHO
also developed an online resource sharing library to
allow members of the NAWHO health forum to share their resources, materials and
tools. We encourage you to share documents that would help others serving Asian
and Pacific Islander communities.
Through
our collective efforts, we can take steps towards building a network to
increase our effectiveness and efficiency in health care delivery to API
communities. Please help us in this initiative by joining our online
community, participating in online discussions, and submitting documents for
the sharing library.
Comments