The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #43138

Karen L. Koh, MPH and Margaret W. Leung, MPH. Asian Pacific Psychological Services, 431 30th Street, Suite 6A, Oakland, CA 94609

While Asians and Pacific Islanders have the lowest rates of utilization of mental health services among ethnic populations, some Asian subgroups are in the greatest need of mental health care. Southeast Asians suffer from particularly high rates of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and exhibit more than twice the need for outpatient mental health services than the general Asian population.

Project Building Bridges aims to increase access to mental health care for one of the most vulnerable and high need groups: Southeast Asian adults who 1) are the least aware of the distinction between primary health and mental health care, and 2) are the most resistant to mental health care due to the misperception of mental illness being equated with craziness and the great stigma attached to those seeking mental health care.

The Project, a collaborative between Asian Pacific Psychological Services and Alameda County Ambulatory Health Care Services, will utilize three strategies: 1) placing a team of bilingual clinical social workers and a psychiatrist in the primary care setting to provide mental health services; 2) enhancing psychiatric assessment and treatment skills of primary care providers through trainings on culturally unique manifestations of mental health problems in Southeast Asians and culturally appropriate assessment and intervention skills; and 3) convening an Asian Mental Health Awareness Board comprised of diverse stakeholders (ethnic community leaders, faith leaders, mental health consumers and their family members, and community-based providers) to raise awareness of mental health issues and resources in the Asian community.

Learning Objectives:

• Create a service delivery system which integrates primary health care and mental health care for the goal of increasing access to mental health services for the underserved Asian & Pacific Islander ethnic populations, particularly Southeast Asian refugee and immigrant adults.
• Develop strategies for increasing stakeholder participation in mental health program planning and service delivery design.
• List opportunities and challenges in providing mental health care to disadvantaged South-east Asian refugee adults, a special high need population who have disproportionately high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

Keywords: Mental Health, Underserved Populations

Related Web page: www.appsweb.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Asian Pacific Psychological Services
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Employment