| Roundtable on South Asians and Chronic Diseases - May 19th, 2009 |
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The discussions at South Asians and Chronic Diseases roundtable helped in outlining future opportunities regarding the prevention and management of chronic diseases within South Asian communities. Based on the prioritizing activity, the 3 areas agreed upon for CASSA to take action on are as follows: 1.Developing a community mapping of the South Asian communities, strengths, champions, places of workship, media, etc and already existing South Asian initiatives within hospitals, public health and community health centers. This includes: a) acknowledging and recognizing differences within and between South Asian communities b) identifying community champions who can act as ‘gate keepers’ to empower the communities 2. Establishing a cross-sectional council of South Asians to discuss strategies to address both prevention and management of chronic diseases within South Asian communities. This includes: a)Youth engagement b) Building partnerships with stakeholders 3. Developing a platform for sharing information amongst stakeholders Some other ideas that came forward are listed as follows: > Outreach to South Asian communities through places of worship > Outreach at locations where South Asians are geographically situated > ‘Train the trainer’ approach to reaching South Asian communities > Utilizing professional evaluators/researchers to do evaluation > Providing incentives to the prevention and management of chronic diseases > Educating children in schools about chronic diseases, so they can educate parents > Addressing cultural barriers to physical activity > Raising awareness through ethnic media > Educating service providers to think differently > Advocacy for interpretation services |