English

A Non-profit Women Wellness Campaign

HeyLady

TL;DR

Led community-based programs supporting U.S.-based Chinese women in navigating and accessing healthcare resources in the U.S.

This is my SVA master’s thesis, during which I spent 1.5 years researching, understanding, questioning, designing, and healing alongside U.S.-based Chinese women. Design, research and facilitation are both deeply personal and a collective journeys. This project cannot be captured solely through its mixed research methods or insights; it also reflects a research mindset of mutual understanding, respect towards individual, and connection.

ROLE

Researcher & Facilitator

DELIVERABLES

Interview

Diary Studies

Content Analysis

Stakeholder Map

Cultural Analysis

Co-creation Facilitation

Social Media Promotion

Theory of Change

RESULT

HeyLady eventually grew into an online community of over 35 active members in NYC, Pittsburgh, and Jersey City, where they supported each other in navigating healthcare resources.

CHALLENGE

Understanding the complexity of U.S.-based Chinese women seeking sexual and reproductive health services

As a Chinese woman, I used to feel reluctant and hesitant to seek help for sexual and reproductive health issues. Many U.S.-based Chinese women share the same feelings as me in this regard. The health seeking journey involves several private, vulnerable, and sensitive moments that requires more than just medical technical support.


My goal is to gain a deep understanding of the root causes of low utilization of medical services and develop solutions to re-engage Chinese women in the new healthcare system.

DID YOU KNOW…?

Breast and cervical cancers are especially significant causes of mortality and morbidity for Asian women, due in part to underutilization of screening practices (Chen, 2009).

For several decades, Asian American women have consistently reported the lowest cervical screening rates among all ethnic groups in the United States (CDC, 2015).

Cultural health beliefs are significant barriers for Asian immigrant women in the U.S. when making decisions and seeking cervical cancer screening, leading to low screening rates. 

UNDERSTAND

Uncovering their pre-history even before they entered the clinics.

I used open-ended interviews and diary studies to understand their health beliefs and health seeking journey, I ultimately selected 17 U.S.-based Chinese women to interview in order to understand:


  • How early cultural beliefs shaped their views on sexuality and reproductive health

  • Key factors/resources/people that influenced cultural beliefs and health-related decisions

  • Their health-seeking journey during adulthood

  • How beliefs and influencing factors impacted health-related decisions

During the pandemic, I invited participants to create their own diary pages and encouraged them to draw things they liked and things that bothered them.


Inspired by the cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) process, I divided the interviews into two stages to understand their pre-adulthood stage (belief learning) and post-adulthood health-seeking stage (belief transformation into action).


Based on interviews, I co-created a storyboard with Chinese women about their “life stories related to sexual and reproductive health” and how stakeholders & resources system shifted in Chinese vs. American context.

Informed by Health Belief Model, I summarized a mentality model to reflects how different cultural, informative factors affects patients decision making. It provides directions for further preventive measures at each level:

Belief on the taboo of sex

“Sex is not something we can talk in the public.”

False attitudes towards SRH

“SRH can be a lower priority in my life/health. Doing nothing wrong = Doing things right.”

False behaviors

“I’m so busy. Maybe I can go to the doctors when things getting serious.”

Misunderstanding

“I don’t have to follow his instructions. I can figure it out myself by having certain diet.”

Stigma on patients

“I always can’t help critisizing and blaming myself during the whole examination.”

Moral values rooted in outdated culture

“If you have a gynecologic issue, it is because you did something you are not supposed to do.”

Reluctant to reach help

& Miss the information

“What if others judge me and having a negative stereotype of me?”

Behavior Level

Knowledge Level

Belief & Cultural Level

INSIGHTS

The research process itself drives change, rather than waiting for evidence to emerge before driving change.


—— Research for Impact, Coursera

During the research process, I realized that conversations with participants helped them realize that some of their approaches to health issues could be improved. Therefore, I decided to adopt a more conversational and community-oriented approach in my solutions.

ACTION ON CULTURE

Design with Chinese American creative community

Partnering with Asian Creative Collective(now Asian Creative Foundation), I hosted a series of co-creation workshop with U.S.-based Chinese women creative folks to reimagine a how we can support each other on health within our community.

ACTION ON CULTURE & KNOWLEDGE

Build social media channels to promote health awareness

With positive feedback from workshop, I started to build a community hub to promote knowledge and information related to women health and cultural beliefs on Facebook fan page(@heyladyforsrh) and Instagram(@heylady_for_srh) by March, 2021.

ACTION ON CULTURE & BEHAVIOR

Hey Lady hotline

To further encourage the community engagement, I hosted 'Secret Support Week' activities among Chinese American community. Through matching support seekers with supporters during a week, I further connected more U.S.-based Chinese women to build a mutual support network.

Through messaging the Hey Lady hotline, the backend working staff directed messagers to relevant services based on their needs. Secret Support Week offers two main services: seeking women’s health support and providing it.

I used card sorting to define common women’s health support scope and topics, improving hotline efficiency. (Note: Due to HIPAA policies, the hotline cannot provide professional medical advice or collect personal health information.)

I drew up task flow charts for help seekers and supporters to streamline our service process before the hotline system went live.

IMPACT

HeyLady eventually grew into an online community of over 35 active members in NYC, Pittsburgh, and Jersey City, where they supported each other in navigating women health resources and mutual support.

Still interested in details? View my process here:

Thesis Process Book: Hey Lady

“Hey Lady” is a project that fosters conversations on sexual and reproductive health among U.S-based Chinese women, combining community building, preventative education, and a digital tool to help them thrive in the unfamiliar U.S. landscape.