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| Vol. 23, No. 4 |
| March 1, 2001 |
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Program Provides Health Information to Asian Community By MARSHA SULLIVAN Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library Thanks to funding provided by the Friends of the Texas Medical Center Library, the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library has partnered with the Asian American Health Coalition, the Harris County Hospital District, the City of Houston Department of Health and Human Services, and the Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services on a new program called Consumer Health Information for Asians, which provides health information to the rapidly growing Asian population of Harris County. Part of the Jesse H. Jones Community Health Information Service, the CHIA project involves displaying kiosks equipped with consumer health information in both the Chinese and Vietnamese languages in strategic locations in the densely Asian American populated areas in Southwest Houston including: Hong Kong Shopping Center, Indo-Chinese Community Center, Bich Gia Nghia Village, Vietnam Buddhist Center, Chinese Community Center, Rainbow Village Senior Housing, and Tzu-Chi Foundation Buddhist Temple.
Information provided in the kiosks was gathered by a steering committee comprised of representatives from all the participating institutions. Committee members first identified major health concerns for the local Asian populations, and then did extensive research to locate materials in Asian languages. The committee found very few health materials available for consumers in Asian languages, so the next step was to translate existing English-language materials. Since many pamphlets are copyrighted, the committee identified information that has been produced by local agencies or state and federal governmental agencies, and obtained permission to have the materials translated. These translations have been carefully screened by local health experts to ensure the quality of both the information and the translation. Future project plans include two steps. First, the existing materials will be translated to other Asian languages and additional kiosks will be installed in other locations. Second, the steering committee has already begun working with the local office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to make health information available on touch-screen computers the INS is placing in strategic areas of the city. The first touch-screen computer has already been placed at the Fiesta Mart at Hillcroft and Bellaire. Since the Fiesta is in a predominantly Hispanic area, materials in Spanish will be identified and scanned into computer format so that they can be loaded onto the INS page used for the touch-screen service. The INS is considering placing the next computer at the Hong Kong Shopping Center.
Statistics from the Harris County Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas show that Asians currently make up approximately 5 percent of the county population, and are projected to comprise 6 percent of the population by 2003. State and county statistics also show that Asian Americans are the fastest growing race/ethnic group in the area. The four largest Asian populations in Houston, according to the Asian Chamber of Commerce, are the Vietnamese (125,000), Chinese (120,000), South Asians (45,000 Indians and 20,000 Pakistanis), and Korean (20,000). There are also 14,500 Filipinos and 7,500 Japanese. For more information contact Marsha Sullivan, HAM-TMC Library Consumer Health Information Librarian at (713) 799-7183 or marshas@library.tmc.edu.
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