美国华人联盟心理健康项目 UCA WAVES 总第 18 期

Celebrate National Wellness Month during the entire month of August！It's time to prioritize your self-care, reduce stress, and create healthier habits to feel like your best self!

Enhance overall health through mindful practices, balanced nutrition, regular exercise, and foster positive mental attitudes.

On July 24, Lily Chen, Unite Chinese Americans (UCA) WAVES Executive Director, and Elaine Peng, Mental Health Association for Chinese Communities (MHACC) Executive Director, attended the White House AANHPI Mental Health Convening (full video included). The event brought together key representatives from the White House, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and dozens of community leaders to discuss the challenges Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) face in accessing mental health care.

7月24日, 美国华人联盟心理健康项目（UCA WAVES）执行长陈健和美国华裔精神健康联盟（MHACC）执行长彭一玲参加了在白宫举行的亚裔、夏威夷原住民与太平洋岛民（AANHPI）心理健康会议。白宫官员、美国药物滥用与精神健康服务管理局（SAMHSA）、美国卫生与公众服务部（HHS）的官员代表，以及数十位亚太裔精神健康社区组织的领袖们齐聚一堂，讨论解决亚太裔美国人在获取心理健康护理方面面临的挑战。

During a panel discussion, Lily emphasized the essential role of parents in supporting youth mental health. She highlighted the barriers posed by a lack of mental health awareness and stigma among older Chinese immigrants. Lily advocated for parental education and stressed the importance of involving community voices in developing solutions, with the motto “Nothing About Us Without Us.” She also called for increased investment in building research capacity within community organizations, citing UCA WAVES’ efforts in using research to support community education and programs.

陈健在会议上强调了家长在支持青少年心理健康中的关键作用。她说，由于缺乏关于心理健康的培训和知识，以及在移民一代中广泛存在的社会污名化，给移民家庭青少年获取帮助造成了很大障碍。

她认为，通过家长教育来消除这些障碍将极大地惠及AANHPI青少年。陈健还强调了深入听取社区声音对寻找解决方案的重要性 - “我们社区的事务，必须有我们的参与”（“Nothing About us Without Us” ）因为社区人士最接近和理解问题，因此专家需要和社区合作才能提出最佳的解决方案。陈健还呼吁投资建立社区组织的研究能力，并分享了UCA WAVES如何利用自己的研究来支持社区教育和项目的例子。对于像UCA WAVES这样的少数族裔社区组织来说，整合和建立研究能力尤为重要，因为研究数据不仅是申请资源的重要因素，也确保治疗服务及宣传教育项目更有效地服务社区。

The White House mental health convening was covered by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill), where Lily Chen is a doctoral student, and North Carolina Central University (NCCU), where she teaches.

对这次的白宫心理健康会议，陈健就读博士的北卡大学教堂山分校（UNC-Chapel Hill）以及她任教的北卡中央大学（NCCU）都做了报道。

UNC报道文章：

《PHD STUDENT LILY CHEN SPEAKS AT WHITE HOUSE AANHPI MENTAL HEALTH CONVENING》

NCCU报道文章：

《NCCU Nursing Professor Advocates for Mental Health at White House Convening》

WeChat blogs ：

《白宫心理健康会议，陈健代表UCA WAVES 出席并发言》

《陈健代表UCA WAVES 出席白宫心理健康会议》

Listen to Lily’s remarks ↑ 以上为会议完整视频

美国华人的精神健康需求在很多方面都不能得到充分满足。本研究旨在识别具体需求，并提出可能的解决策略。

参与者针对以下问题进行讨论，并对每个主题的重要性进行了排序：

(1)华人社区对于精神健康或情绪健康的总体看法是什么？

(2) 哪些因素有助于提高华人的精神健康或情绪健康服务？

(3) 您对于改善华人的精神健康和情绪健康有什么建议？

根据焦点讨论的结果，林宝华教授主笔撰写的研究报告《美国华人社区的精神健康需求和服务障碍：从焦点小组中获得的启示》，已经发表在杂志《Ethnicity & Health》上。

Mental health remains an unmet need among Chinese Americans. This study aims to identify specific needs and strategies that may address the needs.

Participants discussed the following questions, identified themes, and provided ranking of themes in importance for each:

(1) In general, what do people in the Chinese American community think about mental health or emotional well-being?

(2) What have you found to be helpful for accessing mental health or emotional well-being services or care in the Chinese American population? And

(3) What actions would you suggest to improve mental health and emotional well-being in the Chinese American population?

Based on the results of the focus discussion, a research report entitled "Mental Health Needs and Barriers to Service in the Chinese American Community: Insights Gained from Focus Groups", co-authored by Professor Pao-Hwa Lin，has been published in the journal Ethnicity & Health.

在蓝十字蓝盾北卡基金会的资助下，为了更深入地了解北卡州亚太裔居民的健康需求，WAVES 和克伦族难民、广东同乡会等社区在7月组织了3场焦点小组讨论会。

Supported by the Blue Cross NC Foundation, WAVES organized three focus group discussions in July to learn about the health needs of North Carolina's AANHPI Communities.

从2024年初截至6月底，共计220人已成功完成培训，恭喜他们！

So far in 2024, a total of 220 people have completed training! Congratulations !! 

UCA WAVES联合 MHACC 在2023年举办了多次“精神健康急救员培训”，该培训是一门以技能为主的认证课程，由美国心理健康委员会管理。

Managed by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, this certification course equips attendees with skills to recognize and respond to crises and substance abuse symptoms. Successful participants earn a globally recognized "MHFA Certificate".

The Mental Health First Aid Training Program aims to educate community members about mental health and boost their ability to prevent or handle crises, allowing them to become "mental health guardians" for themselves and their loved ones.

相关研究数据的缺乏，是推动亚裔美国人心理健康工作的关键挑战之一。为了填补这个空缺，WAVES刚刚在其网站上发布了第一份研究成果：这些数据告诉我们什么?（←点击阅读详细报告）

该研究报告中的数据，是在2023年3月至2024年4月期间，通过组织精神健康急救(MHFA)培训（药物滥用和精神卫生服务管理局(SAMHSA)资助）而收集的。初步调查结果表明，我们的社区非常需要心理健康教育和服务，污名化现象仍然根植在社区中，获取服务困难重重……未来，WAVES会继续深入这方面的数据收集和研究，为MHFA培训和其他相关事务提供有效依据，以促进我们对社区心理健康状况的理解。

One of the challenges in addressing and promoting Asian American mental health is the severe shortage in relevant data and research for and from the community. To echo the notion of “Nothing about us without us”, WAVES just published its first data-driven Research Insights on its website: What are the data telling us? （←Click to read）

In this report, we used our own data collected from March 2023 to April 2024 during the registrations for the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training funded by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The preliminary findings indicated a great need in our community for mental health education and services as well as deep-rooted stigma among our members and access-to-service challenges. Future Research Insights will provide more empirical evidence on the effectiveness of MHFA training and other data storytelling to deepen our understanding of mental health in our community.

(1)亲子沟通;(2)归属感和认同对心理健康的影响;(3)与心理健康有关的联邦和州政策;(4)卫生保健;(5)心理健康与老龄化。

当被问及可能影响心理健康的因素时，许多参与者列出了亲子或家庭关系、压力以及身体健康、创伤和一般因素。超过20%的人将耻辱和文化信仰列为主要障碍，其次是缺乏意识、费用昂贵、获得治疗的机会有限以及对精神卫生保健的错误信息。

After holding our successful National Chinese American Mental Health Summit in Washington DC in June, UCA WAVES conducted a Summit Feedback Survey. Thirty-eight people participated in the online survey.

Click Here to see the Recap of the Success of the 2024 Chinese American Convention

In general, people were satisfied with the Summit (84%) and were likely to recommend the Summit to others (95%). Most of the survey participants agreed that the Summit sessions were informative.

The survey participants would like to learn more about (1) parent-child communications; (2) impact of belonging and identity on mental health; (3) federal and state policies related to mental health; (4) health and wellness practices; and (5) mental health and aging.

When asked about factors that could affect mental health, many participants listed parent-child or family relationships and stress, as well as physical health, trauma, and other factors. Stigma and cultural beliefs were listed by over 20% of people as the top barriers followed by lack of awareness, financial difficulty, limited access to treatment and misinformation about mental health care.

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