| DWD's Migrant, Refugee, and Labor Services' Chief visits Kajsiab House By Heidi M. Pascual |
| The newly appointed head of the Department of Workforce Development's Bureau of Migrant, Refugee, and Labor Services, Juan José López, doesn't speak nor understand Hmong, but he got his message across when he spoke before 50 or so Hmong elders and young adults at Kajsiab House on May 22. López gave an informative PowerPoint presentation that detailed his bureau's referral services which the Hmong can avail of whenever needed, which was translated step by step by Shoua Vang, DWD Economic/Refugee Support Specialist. He discussed migrant law enforcement, foreign labor certification, and immigration integration, as well as a brief history of the Hmong Resettlement Task Force, which was created by Gov. Jim Doyle in 2004 to advise the governor on how to best assist the new wave of Hmong refugees in Wisconsin. He then focused on the Task Force's recommendations to solve identified need areas such as education and employment, housing and transportation, health and dental care, family strengthening, and mental health. The meat of López' presentation, which greatly captured his audience's attention, was on mental health, an identified area of need, which lacks "culturally competent services for refugees in Wisconsin." He cited language barriers, safe/customer friendly environment (trust), terminology (i.e. heart vs liver), and refugees' perception of mental health, among other problematic areas. The Kajsiab House is one of the four refugee mental health providers in the state, López said, that is most needed by the Hmong elders and families in the community. He also discussed Kajsiab House's positive impact on the Hmong community. |
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