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Caring for a Community
Meeting the special needs of the Sacramento Region's Southeast Asian community is the focus of new program in Social Work.
Working with women at the Hmong Women Heritage Association, Sac State student Dao Moua Fang is being introduced to what it takes to become a good social worker.
Closely following the guidance of social workers in the association’s Kashia Health Program, she conducts educational workshops for cancer support groups and provides case management for Hmong cancer patients. These projects are part of a new program aimed at preparing social workers to work primarily with the Southeast Asian community.
It’s giving students like Fang a new way of looking at the experiences of others. And Fang says she feels that she’s becoming more than just a by-the-books social worker.
“Dual perspective is a very powerful tool when working with ethnic communities such as Asian Americans, because they seek help within their own community before going to human service agencies for assistance,” Fang says.
Fang, who is of Hmong descent, is part of a graduate social work program that is believed to be one of the only such programs of its type in the country.
“These students are very dedicated to the field of social work and to the communities they intend to serve,” says Serge Lee, coordinator of the program and a noted social work researcher.
And social services agencies are more than grateful. Other Sac State students do assessments, crisis intervention and ongoing therapy for children and families in the mental health program at La Familia Counseling Center in Sacramento.
“The students have been very helpful,” says David Nylund, who is a clinical supervisor at the center and a professor of social work. “One of our students, due to his Hmong background, is able to use his cultural knowledge with Hmong clients. This helps with La Familia’s multicultural and diversity focus.”
A Sac State study found that Southeast Asian ethnic groups in the Sacramento Region have the highest poverty rates and the greatest need for social services.
In addition to economics, Lee says, other factors make the social work program vital to the Southeast Asian community in Sacramento. “Many Southeast Asians are still assimilating into the mainstream of American society and adjusting to life in the United States,” Lee says.
Students in the program study subjects required of all social work majors along with 18 specialty seminar sessions that allow them to learn more about the life-changing experiences of groups who escape from their native countries, become refugees in other countries and ultimately settle in America.
Fang hopes to gain the skills she needs to aid Hmong women, many of whom were traumatized by the war in Laos and also may have lost a spouse or child in the conflict. “Hmong have no concept of mental health. Many of these women can’t tell the difference between emotional pain and physical health problems and often attribute their poor health to physical and spiritual causes,” Fang says. “I feel that if there are more Hmong social workers working together with a psychiatrist to deliver responsive mental health services and coordinate culturally sensitive support groups for these women, then they will be able to overcome their trauma.”
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