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

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.