Rebeca Guzman is providing outreach and educating health care workers about the Hmong culture.
Many cultural conflicts exist between Eastern philosophies and American medical practices.
This is particularly true for the Hmong community, a southeast Asian population that has settled in Detroit after migrating primarily from Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. With language barriers and lack of resources, the Hmong people have had a difficult time getting adequate access to health care. Rebeca Guzman, a social worker and Wayne State University research assistant, is helping to break down cultural barriers. The Hmong people are a patriarchal, clan-structured community, so they are somewhat closed off from outsiders. But they do need help getting medical treatment within the context of their value system, said Guzman.