The Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community in Long Beach needs better access to social, health and economic resources, according to the city’s recently released community health needs assessment.
Long Beach is home to more than 6,700 residents identifying as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, either alone or in any combination with one or more races, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
For years, Long Beach’s Department of Health and Human Services has collaborated with the city’s NHPI community to compile data on the group’s needs and how to address them — and now, that data has been released.
In September 2023, the health department launched the community health needs assessment with the NHPI community by engaging five local organizations to help guide the project as the NHPI Community Advisory Committee.
These members represented the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum, the Kutturan Chamorou Foundation, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities, and FOU Movement, according to a staff report. The committee proceeded to recruit one additional member to represent the diverse perspectives and identities within the NHPI community, the Southern California Pacific Islander Community Response Team.
The community leaders helped engage the broader community to get insight into how to improve community health and eliminate health disparities, city officials said.
Long Beach’s Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Community Health Needs Assessment, officials said, was meant to inventory the resources and assets available to the community in Long Beach for promoting health and well-being; to identify key health priorities and assess the health needs of the community in Long Beach; and to develop a community-driven proposition of best approaches for leveraging the strengths of the NHPI community toward mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 and advancing overall health equity.
The Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community experienced the highest death rate from the COVID-19 pandemic of any racial or ethnic group in California, at 255.21 deaths per 100,000 population as of July 2021, according to the report. They had the highest age-adjusted rate for COVID-19-attributed hospitalizations and deaths in Long Beach, 9.1 and 7.3 times the hospitalization and death rates for White residents, respectively, as of August 2021.
Not only was the report meant to bridge the data gap, but it also sought to amplify community voices speaking to assets and barriers to health and well-being, and to continue sharpening the equity lens through which Long Beach assesses its impact, Harold Dela Cruz, the health department’s Filipino, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Health Equity Coordinator, said during a City Council presentation of the report last week.
In collaboration with the Community Advisory Committee, the health department developed and administered a community survey to 130 NHPI current and former Long Beach residents during the summer last year.
“All survey participants needed to be from Long Beach at some point in their lives, but only currently 17% were actually living in Long Beach at the time of taking the survey,” Dela Cruz said. “This was a decision that our committee recommended in order to ensure we include the perspective of folks who were displaced from Long Beach. Our committee also emphasized that it would be challenging to recruit a significant number of Long Beach residents, just because this is our first-ever study that’s collaborated with our NHPI community.”
Following the data collection period, the committee recruited a team of NHPI artists to facilitate two community listening sessions to help interpret the results of the survey, according to the staff report.
Some of the most significant results of the report showed that members of the NHPI community needed better access to health, mental health, nutritious food and economic resources.
The survey showed that the most commonly reported health conditions that respondents experienced were high blood pressure (25%) and diabetes (16%). Similarly, high blood pressure and diabetes were the most common health conditions reported to be experienced within their family history, according to the report.
A substantial majority of respondents chose prayer (75%) as one of their health management methods. Primary care was the second most reported method of health management at 45%.
Committee members, during the Oct. 14 council presentation, suggested collaborating with local churches and community-based organizations to share Long Beach resources to the community, as well as incorporating multigenerational family support.
“Our Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities would likely benefit from tailored health interventions and programs,” said Richard Calivn Cheng, from the UCLA NHPI Data Policy Lab. “Our community responds when we see Pacific Islander values and family-driven approaches reflected in programs.”
Breaking barriers for mental health and helping combat the stigma of seeking professional help for mental health issues is also a need in the community, the report said.
When survey respondents were asked if they felt they might need to see a mental health professional in the past year, 24% responded “yes” and 19% preferred not to say. When examining how various age groups responded to this question, young adults aged 18-24 were most likely to respond “yes,” with 38% reporting that within the past 12 months they felt like they might need to see a professional because of problems with mental health, emotions or nerves.
When grouping respondents by immigration status, 14% of respondents who are immigrants responded “yes” to feeling a need to see a professional for mental health concerns, while 37% of respondents born in the U.S. responded “yes.”
About 53% did not seek health care among the 30 total respondents who needed care, the report said. The most frequent reason respondents gave for not seeking help, even when they thought they needed it, was not knowing where to seek help.
“That tells us there is still a significant gap between recognizing the need for care and actually receiving it,” said Heidi Chargualaf-Quenga, executive director for the Kutturan Chamoru Foundation. “Part of that gap comes from stigma; many in our community were taught to stay strong and keep struggles private. It also comes from tension in multi-generational households, where differences in values and communication make it really hard for youth to talk about mental health.”
Resources for members of the NHPI community to feel economic security is another focus, the report said. Nearly half of respondents (45%) expressed trouble paying for common basic needs, such as rent, food and medical care, within the past 12 months.
When asked about their housing arrangements, a majority of respondents (64%) reported renting, 17% reported owning their residences, and 19% reported currently living with parents or other family members, the report said.
“Greater outreach and access for renters,” Chargualaf-Quenga said, “and enhanced outreach programs to connect NHPI renters with housing assistance, tenants’ rights education, and affordable housing opportunities would be amazing.”
The calls to action from the NHPI community to the city include grant funding to establish health programs that address their needs; more NHPI participation in housing voucher programs; city funding for biannual community health needs assessments; protection from immigration raids; and money for programs that allow artists to interpret data/information that is more digestible and understandable for community members, among others.
The city will use the findings and implications from the report, health department officials said, to continue collaborating with the NHPI Community Advisory Committee to begin working on identifying short-, medium- and long-term goals to improve health outcomes and address the needs of the local NHPI community.
Community members will be invited to support the committee in developing these goals and collaboratively progress toward fostering health equity for the NHPI community in Long Beach, officials said.