The Asian American population is the fastest growing ethnic minority group in the United States, with New York City the major metropolitan destination for Asian immigration. Chinese speaking immigrants in lower Manhattan's Chinatown and the "Chinatown" communities in Brooklyn and Queens experience financial, linguistic, and cultural barriers to access health care services, limiting utilization of genetic and other maternal child health services. Genetic conditions may go undetected with deleterious impact during prenatal, perinatal, and newborn periods. Our comprehensive thalassemia program, the largest in the US, in collaboration with the Chinatown Health Clinic (CHC), a leader in primary health care services for the Chinese community, have implemented a prenatal, pediatric and newborn screening program for thalassemia, a model to enhance access and utilization of bilingual, culturally competent genetic and maternal child health services for Asian Americans. Genetic counseling is provided through bilingual training of clinical support personnel who assist with culturally competent interpretations, health education and performance of screening for Thalassemia and G6PD deficiency. General prenatal genetic counseling is provided for pregnancies identified to be at risk for genetic conditions based on family history, abnormal sonogram findings, teratogen exposure, maternal age, and prenatal screening methodologies. Community bilingual educational efforts include materials used in conjunction with genetic services, community news and radio programs. The project initiated in 1986 has identified thalassemia trait in 7.4% and G6PD in 1% of prenatal patients at CHC, and provides documentation of health care needs and enhances access to genetic services for the rapidly growing Asian population.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to develop a model program to enhance access and utilization of genetic services to Asian Americans, list prenatal genetic conditions in Asian Americans requiring screening and genetic counseling and recognize the incidence of thalassemia and G6PD deficiency in Asian Americans
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.