Hmong Refugee Mental Health Screening Workgroup
Date: Thursday, May 27, 2004
Next meeting: June 3 8 a.m.-9 a.m. 1919 University Ave., St. Paul
I. Inventory of who is planning what:
Regions International Clinic is applying for a grant to do "mass screenings" through a "health fair" paradigm where individuals would come to a central site and be screened for physical and mental health issues. If they do not receive the grant they will simply incorporate screening into their ongoing clinic.
Tools under consideration need to
1) screen for most urgent/acute
problems
2) be quick and easy to administer.
Potential tools:
QPD. Valid for individuals 14 and older. Was used by RC team in Thailand. Using
interpreters, the tool required 20-25 minutes to administer.
Also looked at SF12 and Prime MD, which screen for depression only, and other depression screening tools, some of which have been translated into Hmong.
Wilder has applied for a grant from ORR in conjunction with the Hmong Mental Health Providers Network. They have not yet heard if they will receive the grant. They are discussing two potential screening tools, the QPD and a tool Lisa Nguyen used in Illinois.
Ramsey County Mental Health (Ed Frickson
and Nancy Houlton) has been working with a group internal to Ramsey County
on plans to coordinate services across public health and human services (including
financial services). In addition, the MHC is likely to receive a community
mental health grant. We
are exploring using this grant for refugee mental health screening.
Initial discussions with the developer of the QPD regarding costs
and screening tools and timelines for obtaining the tools has occurred.
St. Paul Public Schools - Mao Chang is involved in planning for screening mental health and educational needs at potentially three school sites.
Public Health is planning specific clinics and times for
health screenings. They are asking people to come in three times: the first
time for lab tests, the second time for the TB test to be read and the third
time for an exam and the results of the tests. It was suggested
adding mental health
screening to the second visit.
Public Health was able to provide some demographic
data for the refugees.
60% are below the age of 18. 50% are below the age of 14. The
average family size is 4-5 people.
Age # %
0-4 3,040 19%
5-14 4,584 30%
15-18 1,545 10%
19-24 1,602 10.5%
25-44 2,598 17%
45-64 1,320 8.6%
over 65 587 3.8%
II. Why screen?
Benefit to individual: For all refugees and sponsor families, provide basic information about mental health and available resources. For individuals in acute distress, earlier mental health intervention to ameliorate trauma. It is also hoped that we will be able to identify those individuals who need waivers or access to disability benefits sooner.
Benefit to system: To provide
useful information to the mental health provider community on service needs
that will inform service gaps, hopefully leading to service development.III.
Screen who?
Unclear if we had consensus on targeted screening or
attempting to screen everyone. Clearly thought we should
screen both kids and adults.
IV. What next?
A. Two work groups were established:
1. Screening tools for Kids and Adults
2. Identification of resource materials for sponsor families
and refugees
B. Meeting schedule established: every Thursday 8-9
a.m. for next four weeks at 1919 University
C. Agenda for next meeting
Report from each work group
Discussion on screening process
Working with VOLAGS
Continued discussion on what benefit to client/system
to screen