Mental Health
Summary: The Asian-American community is faced with a mental health crisis. According to recent statistics, it was found that Asian American women have the highest suicide rate among women over age 65 as well as the second highest among women 15 to 24, and that nearly one out of two Asian-Americans will have difficulty accessing mental health treatment because they cannot find services that meet their linguistic needs. Unfortunately many other barriers such as the mistrust of mental health services, cultural stigma prevent many Asian Americans from accessing mental health care when they need it, furthering the severity of these issues.
Target population: Asian American Immigrant and Refugees Communities in Metropolitan Chicago
Collaborating Partners:
- Chinese American Service League
- Chinese Mutual Aid Association
- Cambodian Association of Illinois
- Hamdard Center
- Korean American Community Services
- Lao American Community Services
- Lao American Organization Elgin
- Vietnamese Association of Illinois
- Chicago Community Counseling Center
Program Description: The Asian Mental Health Partnership Initiative (AMHPI) was initiated by the Asian Health Coalition to increase Asian American awareness of and accessibility to culturally and linguistically competent mental health services and resources. This project was the only Asian focused collaboration to be funded from 2007 to 2010 by a multi-year bilingual bicultural demonstration grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health. 
Program Goals: The overall goal of the AMHPI was to improve the access and utilization of culturally competent mental health services in Asian communities. In partnership with community-based organizations and mental health providers invested in the AAPI communities, the program achieved the following:
- Identified current mental health issues, attitudes, help-seeking practices, and commonly used resources.
- Identified and reduce barriers to mental health care and services through education and dialogue
- Identified resources for cultural and linguistically appropriate mental health care
- Increased mental health literacy and access to culturally and linguistically appropriate mental health education resources among Chicago's limited English proficient AAPI communities
- Built the capacity of partnering AAPI community-based organizations to address the mental health needs/ emotional support needs of their clients.
- Conducted youth outreach with the long term goal of diversifying the social services/mental health workforce.
Contact: For more information please contact Celine Woznica at (312) 372-7070 ext. 230, or celine@asianhealth.org.