How this Vietnamese service center uniquely caters to Santa Clara County community, refugees

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Even though the Vietnamese American Service Center in San Jose has been open for three years, it's still hard to put it into a box.

"When someone asks me to describe it. What is it? Is it a health clinic? Is it a community center? Is it a government center? Is it a cultural center? It's all of the above," said Santa Clara County Supervisor Betty Duong.

Step inside the VASC and you're likely to see people stretching in an exercise class, while just a few feet away, others are checking in for a doctor's appointment.

The center integrates medical and dental services, nutrition programs and community wellness for the Vietnamese American community, which numbers more than 100,000 in San Jose, about a tenth of the city's population.

"When we become a trusted place by the community, they come for that and learn about other services," said HaNhi Tran, senior manager at the VASC.

The idea for the VASC came about a decade earlier, after the county did a health assessment of the Vietnamese community and found many did not access preventative care, even when they had health insurance.

"We found that of those who did have health insurance, up to half of them, their health care plan was to go to the emergency department when things got really bad," explained Duong.

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Before becoming a county supervisor, Duong was a program manager working on getting the VASC from dream to reality.

"We learned from our community that there was a language gap, a cultural barrier. You want to be treated by doctors and care providers who look like you, who can speak your language," said Duong.

The Vietnamese community in Santa Clara County had a voice in the development process.

"If we walk around the VASC we see Vietnamese reflected in architecture, in the design," said Tran.

The green panels on the exterior of the building are a representation of bamboo. The imagery was deliberate.

"In Vietnamese we say behind this bamboo forest is a community that protects each other," said Duong

Nearly 700 people show up every day for lunch in the multipurpose room in the ground level. Medical services are on the second floor with easy access to mental health services.

"Behavioral health still carries a big stigma and so it's important that the footprint didn't have a behavioral health sign," said Duong. "You can seamlessly have a behavioral health appointment then have your physical or vice versa."

A study found Vietnamese Americans were twice as likely than whites to have mental health problems, yet half as likely to get help.

"We know that Vietnamese have high rates of depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," explained Dr. Tiffany Ho, the county's behavioral health medical director.

The trauma of fleeing Vietnam on makeshift boats and having to start a new life in the United States is a shared trauma in the community.

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"The way people greet each other, they want to know how much trauma did you go through. How did you get here. It's a way of bonding," said Dr. Ho.

She still chokes up talking about her own experience fleeing Vietnam as a child aboard a refugee boat after the fall of Saigon. Her father was detained in a Vietnamese re-education camp.

Her mother send her alone on a boat unsure if she would survive the voyage.

"She packed some food and water. She said the family depended on my brother and me to go to school and eventually to help my family," recalled Dr. Ho.

The VASC gives older generations a chance to talk to others with similar experiences.

Tam Nguyen finds it therapeutic visiting the VASC. She was in Saigon when it fell to North Vietnamese forces. Her husband was taken to a re-education camp for nine years.

"I could not go anywhere. Just stay home and worry and cry every day and every night," remembers Nguyen.

When her husband died after they were finally able to flee to the United States, depression set in.

"I stayed home six months. I could not work. I just stayed in bed," said Nguyen.

She does not like to talk much about her personal experience. Instead she prefers to find joy in singing at cultural events held at the VASC.

"I still have depression that is why I want to go out and see people," said Nguyen. "They are happy. They smile. I am happy. I forget some things."

The Vietnamese American Service Center is hosting events this month to commemorate the fall of Saigon, also known as Black April.