Presenter Biography
My name is Vivian Duong, and I am in my second year in the MSW MPH Health Promotion dual degree program.
Institution
PSU
Program/Major
Health Promotion
Degree
MSW, MPH
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
4-4-2023 2:00 PM
End Date
4-4-2023 3:00 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/40211
Keywords
environmental disasters, industrial disasters, mental health, Asian Americans, Vietnamese, Vietnamese Americans, Gulf Coast, BP Oil Spill, oil spill
Abstract
An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig caused 200 million gallons of crude oil to spill on the Gulf Coast over a five-month span. About 16,000 miles of coastline, ecosystem and marine life along Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas were contaminated. This disaster and the recovery process caused social, financial, and ecological shocks, resulting in adverse psychosocial and physical health outcomes, health disparities, and socioeconomic inequality. Among the oil spill's most affected and vulnerable populations are the Vietnamese American communities that settled on the Gulf Coast after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The plight of Vietnamese refugees was nothing short of accumulated trauma from experiencing forced migration, displacement, pirate attacks on sea, starvation, and drowning. This re-traumatization from their historical trauma, exacerbated by the impact of man-made disasters, leaves many Vietnamese Americans at a severe mental health risk and navigating limited access to Vietnamese language resources and treatment plans. The core of mental health practices has historically been guided by European colonial and imperialist hegemony resulting in racialized assessments, misdiagnoses, and ineffective pathways to recovery among Asian Americans. Therefore, Westernized intervention programs are inadequate in addressing the complexity of the re-traumatization of Vietnamese Americans. Adapted from Decolonizing Mental Health Practices Framework for Asian Americans of Millner et al., 2021, the framework incorporates a Vietnamese American-centered framework that addresses the historical trauma from war and displacement.
Included in
Other Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons, Public Health Commons, Social Work Commons
Impact of Industrial Disasters on the Mental Health of Vietnamese Americans on the Gulf Coast
An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig caused 200 million gallons of crude oil to spill on the Gulf Coast over a five-month span. About 16,000 miles of coastline, ecosystem and marine life along Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas were contaminated. This disaster and the recovery process caused social, financial, and ecological shocks, resulting in adverse psychosocial and physical health outcomes, health disparities, and socioeconomic inequality. Among the oil spill's most affected and vulnerable populations are the Vietnamese American communities that settled on the Gulf Coast after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The plight of Vietnamese refugees was nothing short of accumulated trauma from experiencing forced migration, displacement, pirate attacks on sea, starvation, and drowning. This re-traumatization from their historical trauma, exacerbated by the impact of man-made disasters, leaves many Vietnamese Americans at a severe mental health risk and navigating limited access to Vietnamese language resources and treatment plans. The core of mental health practices has historically been guided by European colonial and imperialist hegemony resulting in racialized assessments, misdiagnoses, and ineffective pathways to recovery among Asian Americans. Therefore, Westernized intervention programs are inadequate in addressing the complexity of the re-traumatization of Vietnamese Americans. Adapted from Decolonizing Mental Health Practices Framework for Asian Americans of Millner et al., 2021, the framework incorporates a Vietnamese American-centered framework that addresses the historical trauma from war and displacement.