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Fountain Valley, California (11/22/15)  — On Sunday, November 22, 2015, Orange County residents are invited to the attend the second Walk With A Doc (known as hashtag, #WWAD on social media) community health program, spearheaded by lead physician, Dr. Mai-Phương Nguyễn. Interested walkers meet at Mile Square Park’s Freedom Lake (located at the intersection of Edinger and Euclid) at 8:30am. Equipped with a good pair of walking shoes, Dr. Mai-Phương Nguyễn (former Chief Medical Officer of VNCOC’s Southland Health Center), and friends will lead walkers (of all ages, ethnicity and physical capacities) to walk for 45-60 minutes at their own pace.

Former California State Assemblyman, Lou Correa came to support the inaugural Orange County #WWAD at the #Walk4Refugees event, held at Mile Square Park, October 18, 2015.

The impetus to start Walk With A Doc in Orange County came after Dr. Mai-Phương attended NEPO’s Building Healthy Communities leadership conference in Riverside, California in September 2015.  NEPO (short for Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations) is a conglomeration of over 58 ethnic physician organizations throughout California whose primary mandate is to advance health equity for communities of color, most of whom experience greater health disparities and difficulties accessing affordable healthcare.

Although Dr. Mai-Phương has been attending NEPO leadership summits for nearly a decade and had heard of the 10 year old #WWAD program in years past, it was not until she became Chief Medical Officer of VNCOC’s Southland Health Center in 2015 did she have a platform to coordinate this efficacious, community and public health program to bring its benefits to Orange County. Since leaving VNCOC, Dr. MP Nguyen continues to host the monthly #WWAD-OC program.

The 2015 statistics for #WWAD shows that of the nationwide participants who have committed to a regular #WWAD program in their respective communities:

• 97% enjoy the refreshing concept of pairing with a local physician expert and connect outside of the traditional medical office/hospital setting
• 97% feel more educated about their health since joining a local WWAD program
• 79.4% are exercising more since starting the WWAD program
• 78.8% feel empowered in their interactions with their doctors and healthcare providers.

In addition, Dr. Mai-Phương, who attended the University of Southern California (USC) medical school and completed an internal medicine residency at UCLA, is also a local expert on mental health disorders among ethnic communities.  In particular, she served 10 years in East L.A. (in the aftermath of the 1992 Rodney King and Los Angeles Riots), attending to predominantly Latino immigrants who escaped political strife in Central American countries like Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and México. It’s worth noting that she minored in Spanish Literature from the UCI-undergraduate and is fluent and multi-culturally competent in Spanish and Vietnamese traditions.

Earlier at the turn of the century, she also lived three years and worked in the Pacific Island of Guam, Saipan and Tinian. For the past four years, she has returned to her Southern California “home” Little Saigon community where her aging parents have lived since 1988.  In private practice in the O.C. since 2011, she has become a local expert on the unique primary care and mental health needs of Vietnamese American patients–a community comprised predominantly of refugee immigrants.

Dr. Mai-Phương envisions the #WWAD  as having a fifth mental health advantage: decreasing the social isolation of monolingual first generation or recent emigrated seniors who she has found to be ‘languishing’ in their adult-children’s homes.  “Many of our beloved elders do not feel integrated into the greater American mainstream society.  Being Limited English Proficient (LEP),  those who retire from their factory, assembly jobs or nail salon work (where they never had to learn to integrate), unless they are attending to grandchildren, many of them suffer in silence, cooped up in their senior apartments or in their adult-children’s homes,” says Dr. Mai-Phương.

“Meanwhile, their more integrated (perhaps 1.5 or 2.0 generation) adult children lead busy, Socal lives and do not have time to adequately attend to their aging parents growing healthcare needs.  Many of these aging seniors become lonely, depressed, anxious. the common theme is they ‘don’t want to bother their busy Americanized adult-children. Slowly, they become disaffected, physically and mentally!” remarks Dr. Mai-Phương.

A community-based, public health program such as #WWAD would be “instrumental in coaxing these vulnerable, isolated seniors to venture outside the comfort zones of their apartments and houses and come walk with a culturally-competent and linguistically-appropriate doctor,” states Dr. Mai-Phương Nguyễn.

Since its inception in October 2015, every month, Dr. Mai-Phương and her 2 community health doctora-champions, Dras. Helen Hiền Trần (Patient Safety and Compliance Officer for Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Downey, California) and Teresa Flores, MD (CMO of Share Our Selves, SOS Community Health Center in Santa Ana and Cost Mesa) host a #WWAD event.

Las 3 doctora-amigas-community health champs who host #WWAD-OC monthy: (left to right) Dras. Helen Hiền Trân, MP Nguyễn and Teresa Flores, MD.  All 3 are fluent in Spanish and English.  Dras. Helen and MP also are fluent in Vietnamese.

They begin at 8:30-9am with healthy snacks, stretches and a health charla. During this warm-up, the “Doc-of-the-day” gives a 10-15 minute health charla or chat about a news-worthy community health topic, bringing the latest evidence-based research in science, health and technology to help excite participants of all ages to commit to walking and improving their wellness.  For the price of a good pair of walking shoes, Dr. Mai-Phương believes that the Return On Investment (or “ROI”) of this #WWAD program will be exponential for all of Orange County members–beginning here, in Little Saigon.

“Stretch. Load. WALK!”

Dr. Mai-Phương invites colleagues from medical organizations such as the Orange County Medical Association (OCMA), The Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA) and other community-based health and wellness groups to build a tidal wave of support and expand the #WWAD program. Furthermore, she envisions partnering with health-conscientious businesses to sponsor the walks to build a cross-sectional community-health collaborative. By including local, small businesses and respective ethnic Chambers of Commerce to endorse and actually, Walk With A Doc, Dr. Mai-Phương hopes to Build Healthy Communities, together!

For more information, visit: http://www.WalkWithADoc.org.