HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIOR AMONG SOUTHEAST-ASIAN REFUGEES

This study examined the help-seeking behavior of Vietnamese, Cambodian s, Lao, Hmong, and Chinese-Vietnamese refugees and compared the help-s eeking patterns employed by these groups in their native country with those currently used after resettlement in the United States. There we re three major findings: (1) intergroup differences in help-seeking be havior were found in Asia and also in the United States. In Asia, Viet namese were more likely to utilize Western medicine and the Hmong leas t likely to do so. In the United States, Cambodians were more likely t o utilize mainstream services and again the Hmong were less likely to do so; (2) for all groups there was a dramatic change from prominently utilizing traditional medicine in their home country to a higher usag e of mainstream services in the United States; (3) regardless of the s ignificant increase in the use of Western medicine, traditional medici ne continued to be important for all five Southeast Asian refugee grou ps after resettlement. Furthermore, subjects from all five groups repo rted the use of a dual health care system both in Asia and the United States. The implications of these findings for community services and health care providers are discussed.