Psychologist Reaches Out to Immigrants

When a young Vietnamese-American mother, guilt-ridden because her daughter was handicapped, shot the child and then lay down with her on the freeway, Khiet T. Truong grieved.

Such desperation, especially among fellow Vietnamese-Americans, is the type of emotional abyss that the 36-year-old psychologist for the Orange County Health Care Agency would like to remedy.

However, Truong, who describes himself as an American born in Vietnam, said his ability to help his community is limited because Vietnamese don’t generally go to therapists. In the Vietnamese community, “You don’t talk to strangers, to outsiders,” he said. “Psychotherapy is still foreign to them.” If there are problems, he said, people generally talk to parents, grandparents or religious leaders.

“I cannot use psychotherapy as a way to reach my community as I want to,” he said.

Truong, also a minister, said he fulfills his desire to “serve” through his job as a counselor for Children and Youth Services, by working with teen-agers at a church and through efforts to organize the county’s first Vietnamese free clinic.

Truong’s patients are children and young adults who have learning and developmental disabilities, or who have behavior problems, or who come to the attention of school counselors because they are depressed. They are referred by school districts.

Truong treats his younger patients through play therapy. To gain their confidence he uses toys and stuffed animals representing TV cartoon characters such as the Little Mermaid, Kermit the Frog, Snoopy, Garfield and Bart Simpson. The toys help the child express different emotions.

“The child communicates by playing, and symbolically they talk through playing,” he said.

The ability to play is one indicator of mental health in both children and adults, he said. “The kids who cannot play are the kids who are sick,” he said. “The characteristic of a happy person is that he or she is very playful.”

Sometimes, Truong said, he presents a child with a toy with a happy face and one with a sad face, to see which part of life a child tunes into, and he goes to work from there.

Truong, who also plays basketball and soccer with his young patients, says he considers his job and his work as play. “I don’t say I go to work. I go to play. It is hard work, but I have learned to consider it play,” he said.

The ability to view work as play is his source of inner strength, he said.

Last September, Truong founded the Nhan Hoa Comprehensive Clinic in Garden Grove to provide health services to immigrants who cannot afford medical care or who prefer to be treated by people who understand their culture.

“A lot of Vietnamese professionals are quite successful, but there was no effort to pool together professionals to help the people. That’s what I did,” he said.

Since it opened with three volunteers and Truong as its executive director, the Nhan Hoa Comprehensive Clinic has served more than 400 patients. The clinic combines Western medical treatment as well as acupuncture and acupressure and now boasts a staff of more than 40 volunteers.

Most of the clinic’s expenses are paid by Truong and the volunteer physicians, he said. The clinic also receives donations of supplies and services.

About half of the patients are from the Orderly Departure Program, under which foreign-born families are reunited in the United States. Immigrants in this program, however, are barred from seeking government assistance.

The clinic’s patients have a range of health needs, and are treated for high blood pressure, stomach ulcers, diabetes, lung and liver problems. When the clinic first started, attempts to provide psychotherapy proved to be time-consuming, and patients did not continue with long-term treatment, he said. Services have grown to include off-site dental services.

Truong said the mere existence of the clinic sends an important message. “Everyone is responsible and capable of making society a better place by using our own experience to make something happen,” he said.

When not working with the clinic, Truong spends time with teen-agers at the Vietnamese Presbyterian Church in Garden Grove, where he is youth pastor. To help prepare them for adulthood, he teaches them principles of success, time and financial management and discipline. He also shares his experiences as a refugee. And they also study the Bible and play.

“If they learn anything from me, they will see I am a human being with a tender heart, just like them,” he said.