Our Stories, Our Health: Media Partnership with Multiethnic Elder Communities

Abstract

Since the mid-1970s, millions of immigrants and refugees have come to the United States from Southeast Asia (U.S. Census Bureau 2007). Unlike some of the more established segments of the American population, these new Americans suffer from higher poverty, lower education and numerous health-related disparities. The challenges faced by these communities can be amplified further by low health literacy, limited English proficiency, real and perceived discrimination, and a lack of community infrastructure to support their diverse needs.

Over the last decade, the Asian American population grew by 43 percent nationally, while the White population shrank (U.S. Census Bureau,2011a).  Between 2000 and 2010, the population of Philadelphia grew by 0.9 percent, the first decennial gain for the city since the 1940-1950 period (U.S. Census Bureau 2011b). This was driven in large part by the influx of immigrants and other minorities.

The Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, Inc. (SEAMAAC), a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization, has been serving refugees, asylees and other immigrants in the region for nearly three decades. Among SEAMAAC’s community activities are programs related to citizenship, English language education, youth and elderly outreach, social services and health promotion. Frustrated by the lack of reliable data that accurately reflected the true health status of Southeast Asians in the Philadelphia region, the staff of SEAMAAC partnered in 2007 with public health experts at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University to embark on the process of collecting community-based health data for the communities they served (the research team was later joined by a researcher from Thomas Jefferson University, as well). These data pointed to a number of important health disparities that to date had not been systematically reported for this underserved community (Nguyen et al. 2011). However, it was clear that data alone would not lead to sustainable improvements in the health of their communities.

The use of personal narratives was proposed as a potential avenue for bringing about community-wide behavior change to support healthy lifestyles. This idea is supported by the fact that, unlike many European American traditions that may emphasize the use of stories for entertainment purposes, Asian families may be more likely to use storytelling for the purpose of education and to reinforce social norms (Miller, Wiley, Fung, & Liang 1997). Hence, the creation of an infrastructure that supports health-related storytelling and involves residents, community organizations, and local media carries great potential (Ball-Rokeach, Kim & Matei 2001).