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Abstract

The Asian Mental Health Partnership Initiative is a three-year project aimed at increasing community access to and awareness of culturally and linguistically competent mental health services and resources, and reducing mental health disparities affecting Asian Americans in the metropolitan area of Chicago. Strategies included developing and conducting mental health workshops to strengthen the capacity of Asian American community-based organizations (CBOs) in providing mental health services, implementing a public education campaign to increase mental health awareness, and establishing linkages between Asian American CBOs and other mental health providers. An evaluation was conducted to assess changes in the knowledge and cultural competency of mental health providers, as well as in access to mental health services. Data was collected through questionnaires distributed before and after the workshop, biannual knowledge surveys, monthly reports, web reports, and program tracking sheets. The evaluation found that the majority of participants (93 percent) increased their knowledge of mental health after participating in the workshop. As a result of this project, one of the health care providers launched a range of activities geared toward improving culturally competent care, including establishing a cultural competency committee, defining the organization's cultural competency goals, assessing the level of cultural competency within the organization, developing an organizational cultural competency plan, and providing trainings to 161 staff members on cultural competency. Furthermore, this initiative resulted in the creation of the first Asian American mental health community collaborative in the Chicago area, with an Advisory Council, a community mental health provider, and six partnering CBOs to address mental health issues and conduct mental health awareness events to reduce stigma.

Related NPA Goals:

• Increased awareness, education and outreach to address racial/ethnic minority health and health disparities problems
• Improved access to, and appropriate utilization of, health & other community-based services and systems through user-centered design for racial/ethnic minorities (e.g., health IT, culturally/ linguistically appropriate services, service provider education/ training, workforce diversity)
• Strengthened leadership and coordination to leverage resources and enhance effectiveness and efficiency of individual and collective efforts (including, but not limited to, research and data)

Related Healthy People 2010 Objectives:

• 7-11r Increase proportion of local health departments that have culturally appropriate and linguistically competent community health promotion disease prevention programs on mental health (mental disorders)
• 18-6 Increase the number of persons seen in primary care who receive mental health screening and assessment