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Vietnamese American Service Center reports growing demand for co-located health, behavioral and senior services
Summary
The Vietnamese American Service Center's first annual impact report shows rising utilization of on-site medical, dental, pharmacy, behavioral-health and senior-nutrition services; the committee received the report and asked staff to include outreach/service-area data in the next semiannual update.
The Santa Clara County Vietnamese American Service Center (VASC) presented its first annual impact report to the Children, Seniors and Families Committee on Feb. 27, highlighting expanded services, rising client numbers and high community attendance at events.
Hani Tran, senior manager of the center, said the VASC provides on-site service navigation, translation and co-located county services. Margaret Oberlo, director for adult and older-adult system of care and behavioral health, reported behavioral-health services at the center served about 3,608 individuals in fiscal year 2024, including 312 first-time clients. Franco Germanario, a health-center manager in the ambulatory division, said medical, dental and lab volumes have increased and that pharmacy services rose about 78 percent year-over-year.
Vandana Puri, program manager for the senior-nutrition program, said VASC now serves approximately 545 meals daily and is the county's only site that both offers Vietnamese ethnic meal options and home-delivers Vietnamese meals to homebound older adults. Ilona Betkoi Giverges of DEBS said last fiscal year the on-site DEBS staff served 2,253 clients and assisted with hundreds of applications.
Committee members praised the place-based model as a replicable approach, asking staff to document outreach efforts and top service-area ZIP codes in the next semiannual report so supervisors can assess demand and potential expansion to other high-need communities. Chairperson Arenas and Vice Chairperson Young both commended the center's partnerships and suggested VASC may serve as a model for future place-based service hubs.
Action: the committee received the VASC impact report and requested that future semiannual updates include detailed outreach efforts and top ZIP codes of service area to inform potential replication of the model elsewhere in the county. The recommendation passed on a recorded vote of 2-0.
