142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

304074
Developing an intervention to reduce mental and sexual health problems among Asian-American women: The AWARE intervention

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 5:30 PM - 5:50 PM

Hyeouk Chris Hahm, PhD, LCSW , School of Social Work, Boston University, Boston, MA
Stephanie Chang, MSW , School of Social Work, Boston University, Boston, MA
Mario Feranil, BS , School of Social Work, Boston University, Boston, MA
Ka Lai Poon, BS , School of Social Work, Boston University, Boston, MA
Background/Significance: Despite their public image as a “model minority,” young Asian American women have one of the highest rates of depression and suicide and the growing incidence of substance use and HIV/AIDS in this population is alarming. 

Objectives/Purpose: To address these problems, the Boston University, School of Social Work was funded by the NIMH to develop an intervention to reduce the mental and sexual health problems of this population and to test the efficacy of this intervention. 

Method: We are developing an intervention called the Asian Women’s Action for Resilience and Empowerment (AWARE; www.bu.edu/awship).  We will present the 10 preliminary session models of AWARE and illustrate how we incorporated specific Asian cultural factors and adapted other evidence based models for the intervention.  We will also provide the results of our pilot study with a group of Asian American women who will undergo AWARE and provide feedback to refine it.

Results: The titles of the 10 sessions are: 1.) Introduction to AWARE, 2.) Risk, Safety, and Empowerment, 3.) Coping with Disempowerment, 4.) Catch-22, 5.) Creating New Meaning for the Body and Mind, 6.) Heaven and Earth, 7.) Coping with Triggers, 8.) Harmonizing Relationships, 9.) Giving Yourself Grace, and 10.) The Life Choices Game.

Discussion/Conclusion: We will integrate intervention approaches that address the cultural stigma and shame of seeking help, the underlying family-of-origin issues, and the excessive alcohol and drug use as unsafe coping methods and incorporate empowerment-based and mind-body components to foster a holistic intervention targeting mental and sexual health among young Asian American women.

Learning Areas:

Diversity and culture

Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate how to tailor and adapt a culturally specific intervention using evidence-based intervention manuals and empirical evidence. Demonstrate the recruitment strategies for pilot interventions with Asian American women who are a hard-to-reach population in research settings.

Keyword(s): Asian Americans, Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal investigator of multiple federally funded grants focusing on the mental and sexual health issues of Asian-American women. I have written multiple peer-reviewed journal articles on this issue.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.