(Northwest Vietnamese News) When the Covid-19 pandemic started to obstruct our economy and public life in March, employees at HopeCentral Pediatrics and Behavioral Health were actively spending their time to provide services and urgent care for families with children on the autism spectrum.
“We have to continue taking care of the children who need help while speeding up the process to develop our telehealth system,” said Dr. Patricia Scott, one of the members of Board Certified in Pediatrics, and Medical Director of HopeCentral. “We know that the Covid-19 screening procedures will be extremely difficult in a few situations because of the individuals that have special needs, school closures, treatment programs, and family network; which are the main sources that support each family on a daily basis.” Every single employee from HopeCentral has been working very hard in order to maintain their operations. Their medical team has also been developing and implementing additional safety procedures, updating the latest statistics about the virus, providing urgent care services, handling calls from families that were facing the crisis.
“When the Covid-19 outbreak happened, we contacted families that were on our list to hear from them and see if there was anything that we could help,” shared and explained Ms. Tran Le Vinh, coordinator from HopeCentral. “There were so many families who have lost their jobs and also faced difficulty applying for unemployment benefits. “All of the sudden, they lost their income from driving Uber and employment income from other jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
Ms. Le Vinh has connected families who needed help to purchase food and supply, or to complete the SBA program loan application. After many hours of work to apply for the unemployment benefits, the Employment Security Department eventually started accepting applications from eligible self-employed individuals. Ms. Le Vinh also connected one family to the other so everyone within the community could give a hand to help each other out in order to apply for unemployment benefits; which would at least financially support them to get through this pandemic. “I believe that this means a lot when not only to us but also the families that we have been helping. I hope that families that have children with disabilities can get a good quality life just like every other family in our community. We are glad to support and encourage families to support one another.”
Within just about a month, Coordinator Tran Le Vinh and Program Coordinator Dang Thanh Tam have helped over a hundred applicants; mostly local Vietnamese families who were facing the crisis due to the pandemic, with their concerns, such as: applying for unemployment benefits, asking for temporary reduction or delay their utility bills during the crisis, finding local food banks that donated free meals. “ This pandemic is a tornado that negatively impacted many families. However, we are so happy that we have a chance to give and share our support and love to each family and fortunately received such a great result.” Ms. Le Vinh has worked very hard to translate documents about the Covid-19 from the Community Health Center to Vietnamese and also produced a few creative videos to share with our community so that everyone could be aware of the seriousness of the coronavirus.
Prior to the outbreak, the medical team at HopeCentral was focusing on helping their patients and supporting the Vietnamese community to pay attention and care for children with developmental disabilities. Their clinic is located in Othello neighborhood of South Seattle, near a busy Vietnamese commercial district.
The clinic is led by three highly skilled pediatricians and a child psychologist; HopeCentral is specialized in child care, certified to provide evaluation and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder for children with Apple Health insurance; moreover, HopeCentral also “has been designated by the Washington Healthcare Authority as an Autism Center of Excellence” (HopeCentral, 2020). “We have witnessed the Vietnamese families struggling and trying to cope with the complexity of accessing autism services for their children ,” Dr. Thanh Kirkpatrick shared. “I have witnessed many parents feeling lonely, exhausted, which caused their unwillingness to ask for help from anyone.” These causes have led to the establishment of an autism advisory council for Vietnamese families (www.vfaab.org). VFAAB includes families, community members, clinicians, service providers, and the VFAAB Director.
Dr. Thanh Kirkpatrick explained: “We connect families that have children with developmental delays in the Vietnamese community to treatment services. VFAAB is a trusted source for professionals and families who aim to help and educate the community about autism and developmental delays. Through all this, we hope to strengthen our community and the health education system to promote an environment where every child with disabilities is getting respected and developed.”
In 2018, HopeCentral received two sponsors through “Best Beginning for Children” program from King County to specifically serve children in the Vietnamese community.
“We have two ways to support our Vietnamese community,” Ms. Dang Thanh Tam, HopeCentral Program Coordinator shared. “We support and guide families and patients to receive benefits through specialized services, such as ABA therapy or on-demand temporary caregiver. In addition, we also organize monthly educational and support groups that every member of our community can attend.”
“We currently hold weekly parent support meetings and meetings online on every Wednesday afternoon,” This is very helpful since large group meetings are temporarily being suspended during the pandemic.
Vietnamese parents are invited to register to share their stories, as well as obstacles that they are facing within their households by having conversations through live broadcast. Parents expressed that this is a very necessary and useful way to connect with each other during the “isolation period” due to Covid-19. “We invite and welcome new families to join us every Wednesday afternoon to share and learn the helpful information from our coordinator and other team members so they can get the support and connection that they need during this time of isolation,” Ms. Thanh Tam welcomes everyone to join.
For families who want to learn more about HopeCentral or VFAAB, please visit www.hopecentralhealth.org and www.vfaab.org. If you have children in your family with disabilities and would like to join the parent support group every Wednesday, please contact Ms. Tran Le Vinh at 206-455-9847, or Ms. Dang Thanh at 206-455-9848 for more information and directions.
“We have to continue taking care of the children who need help while speeding up the process to develop our telehealth system,” said Dr. Patricia Scott, one of the members of Board Certified in Pediatrics, and Medical Director of HopeCentral. “We know that the Covid-19 screening procedures will be extremely difficult in a few situations because of the individuals that have special needs, school closures, treatment programs, and family network; which are the main sources that support each family on a daily basis.” Every single employee from HopeCentral has been working very hard in order to maintain their operations. Their medical team has also been developing and implementing additional safety procedures, updating the latest statistics about the virus, providing urgent care services, handling calls from families that were facing the crisis.
“When the Covid-19 outbreak happened, we contacted families that were on our list to hear from them and see if there was anything that we could help,” shared and explained Ms. Tran Le Vinh, coordinator from HopeCentral. “There were so many families who have lost their jobs and also faced difficulty applying for unemployment benefits. “All of the sudden, they lost their income from driving Uber and employment income from other jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
Ms. Le Vinh has connected families who needed help to purchase food and supply, or to complete the SBA program loan application. After many hours of work to apply for the unemployment benefits, the Employment Security Department eventually started accepting applications from eligible self-employed individuals. Ms. Le Vinh also connected one family to the other so everyone within the community could give a hand to help each other out in order to apply for unemployment benefits; which would at least financially support them to get through this pandemic. “I believe that this means a lot when not only to us but also the families that we have been helping. I hope that families that have children with disabilities can get a good quality life just like every other family in our community. We are glad to support and encourage families to support one another.”
Within just about a month, Coordinator Tran Le Vinh and Program Coordinator Dang Thanh Tam have helped over a hundred applicants; mostly local Vietnamese families who were facing the crisis due to the pandemic, with their concerns, such as: applying for unemployment benefits, asking for temporary reduction or delay their utility bills during the crisis, finding local food banks that donated free meals. “ This pandemic is a tornado that negatively impacted many families. However, we are so happy that we have a chance to give and share our support and love to each family and fortunately received such a great result.” Ms. Le Vinh has worked very hard to translate documents about the Covid-19 from the Community Health Center to Vietnamese and also produced a few creative videos to share with our community so that everyone could be aware of the seriousness of the coronavirus.
Prior to the outbreak, the medical team at HopeCentral was focusing on helping their patients and supporting the Vietnamese community to pay attention and care for children with developmental disabilities. Their clinic is located in Othello neighborhood of South Seattle, near a busy Vietnamese commercial district.
The clinic is led by three highly skilled pediatricians and a child psychologist; HopeCentral is specialized in child care, certified to provide evaluation and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder for children with Apple Health insurance; moreover, HopeCentral also “has been designated by the Washington Healthcare Authority as an Autism Center of Excellence” (HopeCentral, 2020). “We have witnessed the Vietnamese families struggling and trying to cope with the complexity of accessing autism services for their children ,” Dr. Thanh Kirkpatrick shared. “I have witnessed many parents feeling lonely, exhausted, which caused their unwillingness to ask for help from anyone.” These causes have led to the establishment of an autism advisory council for Vietnamese families (www.vfaab.org). VFAAB includes families, community members, clinicians, service providers, and the VFAAB Director.
Dr. Thanh Kirkpatrick explained: “We connect families that have children with developmental delays in the Vietnamese community to treatment services. VFAAB is a trusted source for professionals and families who aim to help and educate the community about autism and developmental delays. Through all this, we hope to strengthen our community and the health education system to promote an environment where every child with disabilities is getting respected and developed.”
In 2018, HopeCentral received two sponsors through “Best Beginning for Children” program from King County to specifically serve children in the Vietnamese community.
“We have two ways to support our Vietnamese community,” Ms. Dang Thanh Tam, HopeCentral Program Coordinator shared. “We support and guide families and patients to receive benefits through specialized services, such as ABA therapy or on-demand temporary caregiver. In addition, we also organize monthly educational and support groups that every member of our community can attend.”
“We currently hold weekly parent support meetings and meetings online on every Wednesday afternoon,” This is very helpful since large group meetings are temporarily being suspended during the pandemic.
Vietnamese parents are invited to register to share their stories, as well as obstacles that they are facing within their households by having conversations through live broadcast. Parents expressed that this is a very necessary and useful way to connect with each other during the “isolation period” due to Covid-19. “We invite and welcome new families to join us every Wednesday afternoon to share and learn the helpful information from our coordinator and other team members so they can get the support and connection that they need during this time of isolation,” Ms. Thanh Tam welcomes everyone to join.
For families who want to learn more about HopeCentral or VFAAB, please visit www.hopecentralhealth.org and www.vfaab.org. If you have children in your family with disabilities and would like to join the parent support group every Wednesday, please contact Ms. Tran Le Vinh at 206-455-9847, or Ms. Dang Thanh at 206-455-9848 for more information and directions.
NVTB – with contribution of Dr. Patricia, PL & JN
