Southeast Asian Refugees in the “Silicon Valley”: The Asian Health Assessment Project

Santa Clara county, located at the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, is known familiarly as Silicon Valley, the center of the semi-conductor and computer industry of the United States. With a growing population of 1.3 million, the county has attracted immigrants and refugees from other parts of the United States and abroad, including many Southeast Asian refugees. Many of these refugees established residence in the county as a result of primary migration; others came to Santa Clara after their initial resettlement in the United States. This report is the first epidemiologic survey of the mental health status of the Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Chinese residents of this urban center.' The Asian population was of special interest because county treatment rates indicated a low level of mental health service relative to their percentages in the population, and because of recent migration into the KENNETH MEINHARDT, a lecturer in the department of psychiatry, Stanford University, is director of mental health in Santa Clara County. SOLENG TOM is a psychiatrist on the staff of the Santa Clara County Mental Health Bureau, and regional director for the northern region of the county.