The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #55118

Teddy M. Chen, CSW¹, Elizabeth J. Kramer², Hongtu Chen, PhD¹, and Henry Chung, MD¹. (1) Mental Health, Charles B. Wang Community Health Center, 268 Canal Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10013, 212-379-6998x225, tchen@cbwchc.org, (2) Self Employed, 931 South Duke Street, York, PA 17403

Compared to all other racial and ethnic groups, Asian Americans have the lowest utilization of mental health services and experience the greatest delays in receiving appropriate care when psychological problems occur. Their reluctance to seek help can be attributed to the severe stigma of seeking services for mental illness as well as the shortage of competent bilingual and bicultural mental health service providers. Because patients often are in crisis or chronically ill when they finally do seek treatment, outcomes frequently are poor. In an effort to deal with this problem, the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center, in partnership with a number of public and private community institutions and organizations, private practitioners, and medical and nursing school faculty, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Local Initiatives Funding Partners and other local and federal funding partners created the Asian American Primary Care and Mental Health Bridge Program. An enhanced form of the curriculum was published as a special theme issue of the Western Journal of Medicine in September 2002. In 2000 this highly successful continuing program received the HRSA Models that Work Award and it was cited in the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health and Ethnicity in 2001 as the model program for delivering mental health services to Asian Americans. It has been or is in the process of being replicated at several sites around the country. It is hoped that the next step will be replication in settings that care for other ethnic groups.

Learning Objectives:

• To increase patient access to mental health services by integrating primary care and mental health services on site.
• To upgrade the skills of primary care providers in the community and at the integrated sites. This is an important component of the program because early identificationi and treatment of patients with psychiatric disorders will result in improved outcomes.
• To raise community awareness of mental health issues through on-going community education and outreach activities.

Keywords: Adult and Child Mental Health, Asian Americans

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Charles B. Wang Community Health Center
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.