Community-Engaged Research Project: Malden

Project Title

The Malden Asian Community Needs and Strengths Assessment

Funded by

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Project Period

July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2010

Project description

What did you set out to do?

The goal of this community-based participatory research (CBPR) project was to look closely at the reasons that Vietnamese and Chinese adults in Malden, MA suffer from a range of health concerns. There is some evidence that many families have limited access to health care. This is thought to be due to social, cultural, educational and economic barriers. In order to help address these issues, this study used a participatory needs and strengths assessment to gather data. This was done by collaborating with a core group of community members. Many Chinese and Vietnamese bi-lingual community outreach workers were also involved. This project involved:

• The review of existing data
• Group meetings to talk about community strengths
• Interviews with community members
• The collection of survey data

What did you find?

The data from the assessment suggest that there are three key health issues in this community. These include cultural and linguistic concerns that affect health care access as well as mental health concerns. Other health concerns include hypertension and tobacco use. Key community strengths found include:

• A close-knit community
• Close associations with religious institutions
• A strong sense of culture

What have you done/are you planning to do with your findings?

We expect that this project will provide the Malden community with important knowledge about the health needs of the Chinese and Vietnamese community in Malden. These findings will provide the basis for future efforts to:

• Improve service delivery
• Develop programs
• Provide data for continued participatory research efforts.

The program partners and the Malden community are in talks about how to continue this work and help improve the health of the Asian community in Malden.

How did you report your outcomes?

Data from this project is being handed out on the local, state and national level. The data is shared through presentations, evaluation reports and academic articles.The data from the Chinese project was presented at several meetings including:

• The American Public Health Association meeting.
• To providers at the Family Medicine clinic at the Cambridge Health Alliance's Malden Family Medicine Center.
• To the Malden community at a forum where the participants engaged in an interactive exercise to help the project team interpret the data and prioritize key health issues.

Collaborators and affiliations:

• Healthy Malden, Inc. (HMI) hopes to improve the health of Malden residents by fostering citizen and agency collaboration. Focus is put on the city's most pressing health issues.
• Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) helped fund a needs and resource assessment of the Chinese and Vietnamese community in Malden.
• Institute for Community Health (ICH) is collaborative community-based research organization.
• Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA)/Department of Community Affairs at the CHA, is a regional, academic healthcare system with 3 hospital campuses and a network of primary care and specialty locations.
• Outreach workers in Malden.

For more information

For more information about this project please contact:

Shalini A. Tendulkar, ScD Research Associate, Institute for Community Health / Cambridge Health Alliance (stendulkar@challiance.org) Website: http://www.icommunityhealth.org/

Renée Cammarata Hamilton MSW, MPA, Cambridge Health Alliance Malden Health Improvement Manager, Community Affairs (rcammaratahamilton@challiance.org)