Vietnamese Immigrants in Brisbane, Australia: Perception of Parenting Roles, Child Development, Child Health, Illness, and Disability, and Health Service Utilisation
The limited research into Vietnamese immigrants suggests that this group may have different perceptions relating to parenting roles, child development, child health, illness, and disability, and differing patterns of health service utilisation. The author conducted a pilot study exploring how Vietnamese immigrants differ from Anglo-Australian in relation to these issues. The pilot, utilising a mixed quantitative and qualitative method, was conducted in Brisbane, Australia, with subjects being existing clients of a health centre. Two focus group discussions were conducted and a structured questionnaire developed from the discussions. Vietnamese immigrants in contrast to Australian-born Caucasians regard the general practitioner as the main health care provider and were less satisfied with English-speaking health services. This study highlights potentially important health-related issues for children of Vietnamese immigrants living in Brisbane, the importance of further research in this area, and the methodological challenges faced when conducting research into Vietnamese immigrants. 1. Introduction The literature indicates reduced access to health services and disparate health outcomes in people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CLDBs) living in Western countries [1, 2]. Low socioeconomic status, which is more prevalent in people from CLDB, accounts for some but not all of the disparate outcomes [3–5]. With Australia’s increasingly cultural and linguistically diverse society, in particular a growing Asian population, health outcomes and health service utilisation of this population is an issue of great relevance to Australian practitioners and policy-makers. Even though commonalities may exist between CLDB populations, further exploration regarding poor health outcomes and access to health services demonstrate the importance of specific factors that are unique to individual communities. During this study, staff at Inala Community Health’s Department of Child, Youth and Family Health indicated possible deficits in the delivery of health services to families from CLDB, especially those from a Vietnamese background. Staff believed that these deficits may be related to different cultural perceptions held by parents about children’s health, development, and the role of parenting. A greater understanding of cultural values and beliefs of people from CLDB, which underlie health behaviour, is essential if appropriate health services are to be provided. A significant amount of the immigrant health research emanates from the United States of
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