A fraction of these citizens are of Vietnamese descent. The elder members of this new ethnic community, the vast majority of whom immigrated after 1975, arrived here with few, if any, personal belongings and spent the next forty years establishing homes, businesses and families, raising children and putting them through college.

Having invested their energy, time and money in ensuring their children got a good start in their adopted nation, many of these men and women have entered their senior years without the luxury of savings accounts, pension plans, 401k plans or other sources of retirement income. They are relying largely on their cultural cohesion, their unflagging resourcefulness and, in northern Houston, their friends at the Annam Vietnamese-American Community Center for Seniors—and the visitors who arrive there once a month aboard the CHRISTUS Healthy Living Mobile Clinic.

Healthcare for aging Houstonians, particularly those who have limited resources and mobility, constitutes a major focus of the mobile clinic’s mission.  In serving Houston’s Vietnamese community, as at similar stops in nursing homes and other neighborhood centers, the clinic’s crew teams with volunteer physicians to provide routine medical exams, annual influenza vaccines, and free blood-pressure, glucose, cholesterol and prostate-specific-antigen (PSA) screenings. They also collaborate with the Texas Gulf Coast affiliate of the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization in providing education about and screenings for breast cancer.