Thai residents face obstacles to healthcare

Stigma, limited access and other issues present barriers for many needing help.

- BY PHI Do

CARLIN STIEHL Los Angeles Times

PRANOM relied on meth to dull her senses for sex work. She needed to recover in order to help her son.

Pranom was losing hope.

She had been waiting more than two months to be accepted into a substance use program. A survivor of human trafficking, she was using meth to numb her depression, doing sex work to pay off her debts and caring for her adult son with special needs. The Times is not using her last name.

Her psychiatric social worker, Wanda Pathomrit, called a treatment center to start the intake process. But when Pranom arrived, they could not accept her because no one on staff could speak Thai.

"But you can hire an interpreter," Pathomrit told them. "She is ready. Do you know how hard it is to get someone who's ready to quit?"

Despite Southern California having the world's largest Thai population outside Thailand, those here face stigma, language barriers and limited resources when accessing mental health care.

Thai Town's temples and resource centers aim to support the community, but having few Thai-speaking mental health care workers can mean long waits to access treatment centers, housing support and social work resources.

While waiting for a Thai interpreter, Pranom fell deeper into despair.

Pathomrit tried encouraging her to follow up with the treatment center, but Pranom stopped picking up the phone.

"The idea of treatment provided a sense of hope," Pathomrit said. "When she got rejected and had to wait, I was worried she might think this type of help was not meant for her."