KhmerDoctor.com

PHNOM PENH: Dengue fever has killed at least 333 Cambodians this year, most of them children, and many more could die before the rainy season ends next month, senior health officials said on Wednesday. The disease, which killed 116 Cambodians in 2006, has spread across the impoverished nation and infected 31,136 people this year, most of them in the countryside where living conditions are poor and children are vulnerable, they said.

“Their parents do not have enough time to take care of them at home. They are poor, they are away from home to make a living,” said Ngan Chantha, head of the country’s anti-dengue programme.

More could die with the monsoon season, ideal breeding weather for the mosquitoes which carry the disease, not due to fade until the end of September, he said.

A publicity campaign against the disease, including admonitions to clean containers at home every 10 days to ensure mosquitoes cannot breed in them, has borne little fruit.

“The striking issue is villagers do not clean their containers frequently,” said Duong Socheat, director of the National Malaria Centre.

The country’s four-Swiss funded hospitals have appealed for $7 million to fight a disease that reached epidemic proportions in wealthy Singapore as well as striking hard in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia.

The World Bank, the World Health Organization and the Red Cross have provided pesticide to kill mosquitoes and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) gave $300,000.

Cambodia, whose health care system was devastated in 30 years of civil war, spends about $3 per person on health a year, according to the World Bank.

http://psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/58/9/1212 

S. Megan Berthold, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., Eunice C. Wong, Ph.D., Terry L. Schell, Ph.D., Grant N. Marshall, Ph.D., Marc N. Elliott, Ph.D., David Takeuchi, Ph.D. and Katrin Hambarsoomians, M.S.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined U.S. Cambodian refugees’ use of complementary and alternative medicine and Western sources of care for psychiatric problems. Analyses assessed the extent to which complementary and alternative medicine was used in the absence of Western mental health treatment and whether use of complementary and alternative medicine was associated with decreased use of Western services. METHODS: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a representative sample drawn from the largest Cambodian refugee community in the United States. The sample included 339 persons who met criteria in the past 12 months for posttraumatic stress disorder, major depression, or alcohol use disorder. Respondents described contact with complementary and alternative medicine and Western service providers for psychological problems in the preceding 12 months. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used. RESULTS: Seventy-two percent of the sample sought Western mental health services, and 34% relied on complementary and alternative medicine in the past year. Seeking complementary and alternative medicine was strongly and positively associated with seeking Western services, contrary to the hypothesis that use of complementary and alternative medicine inhibits seeking Western mental health treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Only a small percentage of Cambodian refugees used complementary and alternative medicine exclusively (5%), and utilization of complementary and alternative medicine was positively associated with seeking Western sources of care for mental health problems. Complementary and alternative medicine use does not appear to be a significant barrier to mental health treatment in this population, contrary to the Surgeon General’s conclusion that Asian Americans’ use of alternative resources may inhibit their utilization of Western mental health care.

The Red Sense - a view from ‘down under’

A new film, called The Red Sense, by first-time Khmer-Australian director Tim Pek, deals with the Khmer Rouge Regime, and the upcoming trials, from the perspective of younger Khmers living in a western country. Actress Sarina Luy (pictured), plays the role of Kong Jan Melear, a thirty-something Khmer woman living in Australia, who discovers that her father’s killer is living freely in a first world country - an opportunity her father was never given. The film deals with her personal struggle as she tries to decide what the correct course of action is. Sarina Luy arrived in Australia in 1995 from New Zealand, after having left a refugee camp in Thailand in 1991. 

Filmed in Australia, with real Khmer actors and actresses, Director Tim Pek elected to have 80% of the dialogue in Khmer (with English subtitles). His hope is that the film will motivate Cambodians to forget the past and to focus on the future. The film is scheduled for an independent release in Australia in November 2006, along with a public release in Phnom Penh. You can see the film trailer and photos here.

http://www.khmerdreams.org/projects/ncahi/NCAHI_BobChanly.pdf
http://www.khmerdreams.org/projects/ncahi/Survivor_Health_Statement_Form__Final_.pdf

On November 13, 2005, the National Cambodian American Health Initiative (NCAHI) declared a “state of health emergency” in the Cambodian American community due to increasing levels of serious, life threatening illness and diminishing resources.

NCAHI is a newly formed national Cambodian American health advocacy organization and is now reaching out to Cambodians across the United States seeking support for actions which will increase health resources for our people.

The current emergency in our community is not like the raging storm that tore apart our country in the 1970’s but more like the slowly rising flood waters from broken levees that are silently drowning our people. We are now dying from diabetes, stroke, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in large numbers. What we are seeing is the ongoing degenerative effect of genocide, because these illnesses have their roots in the violence, starvation and torture of the Killing Fields.

There are no simple answers to solve this problem, but we believe that if we come together as a community to tell our stories and to search for solutions, we can begin a process of healing. We will develop the power to bring our voices to the public and claim our rightful share of the resources that are essential to saving lives.

We ask you to please join us for a National Town Hall meeting on April 17th from 11am-4pm Central Time (12pm-5pm East Coast, 9am-2pm West Coast) held at the Killing Field Memorial in Chicago, Illinois. This meeting will use videoconferencing technology to bring together our community from across the country. We are please to invite you to participate in this historic event by:

•Joining us in Chicago, Illinois
•Joining us from a satellite site in Long Beach, California; Farmington, Connecticut; Lowell, Massachusetts and Portland, Oregon. Satellite sites will have videoconferencing linkage to Chicago, Illinois.
•Participate through Internet web casting; the web casting URL will be available one week prior to April 17th.

•Send us a written testimony about the health problems of Cambodians in your area.

We have included the following supplemental documents: (1) postcards to help publicize this event and solicit community participation; (2) a listing of all satellite meeting sites and (3) a testimony form to share your community’s needs and health problems.

This meeting is the first step in a series of actions that we hope will lead to a Congressional hearing on Cambodian health. Together we can make this happen.

Should you have any questions, please call me at (860) 561-3345 or contact SivHeng Ung at (503) 234-1541 ext 209.

Truly Yours,
Theanvy Kuoch, Chair

Enclosures (3)
Cc: Steering Committee Members

Host Site

Illinois
11am-4pm Central Time
Cambodian American Heritage Museum
2831 West Lawrence Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625
(773) 878-7090

Videoconferencing Sites

California
9am-2pm Western Time
Cambodian Association of America
2390 Pacific Avenue
Long Beach, CA 90806
(562) 988-1863

Connecticut
12pm-5 pm Eastern Time
University of Connecticut Health Center
Henry B.C. Low MD Learning Center
263 Farmington Avenue
Farmington, CT 06030
(860) 561-3345

Massachusetts
12am-5pm Eastern Time
University of Massachusetts Lowell
Coburn Hall – South Campus
850 Broadway Street, RM 112
Lowell, MA 01854
(97 746-3107

Oregon
9am-2pm Western Time
Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization
10301 Northeast Glisan Road
Portland, OR 97220
(503) 234-1541

Thursday, April 20, 2006
5:30-7:30pm
Location: Long Beach City College

For a talk with Dr. Richard Mollica,
Director of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma
and Community Dialogue facilitated by
NCCJ of Southern California

A Collaboration of:

Richard F. Mollica, M.D., M.A.R. is the Director of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT) of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is a world renowned expert on the Cambodian genocide and the mental health needs and treatment of Southeast Asian refugees. In 1981, Dr. Mollica co-founded the Indochinese Psychiatry Clinic (IPC). Over the past two decades HPRT and IPC have pioneered the mental health care of survivors of mass violence and torture. HPRT/IPC’s clinical model has been replicated throughout the world. Dr. Mollica has received numerous awards for his work, including the 1993 human rights award from the American Psychiatric Association. Under Dr. Mollica’s direction, HPRT conducts training, policy and research activities for traumatized populations around the world. The group’s recent epidemiological studies have demonstrated for the first time the chronic disability and mortality associated with the mental health sequelae of mass violence. HPRT’s scientific work has helped place mental health issues at the center of the recovery of post-conflict societies.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT

NCCJ at:

(562) 435-8184

or log onto:

http://www.nccjsocal.org

http://www.hprt-cambridge.org

By Kristopher Hanson, Staff writer
Long Beach Press Telegram

LONG BEACH — Between 1975 and 1979, Cambodia’s “Killing Fields” claimed the lives of an estimated 4 million men, women and children under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in control of the small southeast Asian nation.

Among those who escaped the horror were many who came to Long Beach.

Now, a cultural project featuring the experiences of Cambodian-American women through musical performances, a photographic exhibit and lecture is under way in Long Beach.

Through art, the project tells the stories of women who experienced the Cambodian holocaust.

A play at the Found Theatre, 599 Long Beach Blvd., features the story of a young girl who flees Cambodia under the horrors of the Khmer Rouge and is adopted by a family at a Thai refugee camp. The family eventually makes their way to America, where they find life can be as difficult as it was in Cambodia.

“Journey Across the Mine Fields to America” runs through Sunday.

Based on an ancient Cambodian cultural tradition called Lakhon Yike (pronounced yeekay), the performance includes drums, dancing and singing. Chantara Nop, a local survivor, wrote the play.

On March 4, a photographic exhibit titled “Courage and Resiliency: Cambodian-American Women in America,” opens at the Long Beach Main Library with a 2 p.m. reception featuring the oral history of 10 women documented with 47 photographs.

The library, at 101 Pacific Ave., will provide gallery space and free admission for the exhibit through April 30 during regular library hours.

On March 7, Poly High School will welcome Svang Tor, Senior Clinician and Consultant with the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT). Tor is also a Cambodian-American survivor who is featured in the exhibit from Harvard. She will speak to students from 9:30-11:30

Finally, April 20, Harvard Psychiatry Professor Richard Mollica, who oversees the HPRT, will speak at Long Beach City College.

To contact the Found Theater, call (562) 433-3363 or visit www.foundtheatre.com. For more information about the project, call the National Conference for Community and Justice at (562) 435-8184.

Finally, April 20, Harvard Psychiatry Professor Richard Mollica, who oversees the HPRT, will speak at Long Beach City College.

To contact the Found Theater, call (562) 433-3363 or visit www.foundtheatre.com. For more information about the project, call the National Conference for Community and Justice at (562) 435-8184.