NWHF Video Channel

“Public Health Matters” Video Contest Introduction

This is the “seed video” for the Community Health Priorities “Public Health Matters” video contest.

Deadline is August 15, 2010.

For more information on the contest, visit:

http://www.communityhealthpriorities.org/public-health-matters-video-contest/

Cambodian Oral History Project

Oregon and Southwest Washington is home to as many as 10,000 Cambodian-Americans. Many lived through the horrors of the Khmer Rouge and came here as refugees in the early 1980s. A large number of people in the Cambodian-American community are still plagued by nightmares and post-traumatic stress, yet between wariness of Western doctors and mental health stigmas, many are reluctant to seek treatment. Cambodian-American communities see high rates of diabetes, stroke, drug addiction, alcoholism and family violence.

In 2008, Northwest Health Foundation funded the Cambodian-American Community of Oregon and southwest Washington to develop an oral history documentary project that trains Cambodian-American youths to interview their own parents and grandparents about their experiences under the Khmer Rouge. The interviews were compiled into the documentary previewed here.

This effort is a strong example of a Foundation’s Kaiser Permanente Community Fund project, which seeks to address the various social determinants of health. We have already heard that the oral history project has helped Cambodian-American youth better understand their families, and has given Khmer Rouge survivors some catharsis so the community can begin to mend.

For more information about the film, please visit the CACO website.

Hunger and Healthcare

This short video highlights the often dangerous intersection of health care and hunger experienced through the stories of emergency food clients in Oregon. These are only a few of the thousands of Oregonians who are forced daily to make impossible choices between feeding their families and seeking medical care.