NEWSBRIEF

Newsbrief: ACMHS Celebrates Real Inspiration Fundraising Event

OAKLAND, CA—On October 30, Asian Community Mental Health Services (ACMHS), a 31-year old not-for-profit organization based in Oakland Chinatown, hosted Real Inspiration: Reading & Recital to Support a Resilient Community at Anna’s Jazz Island in Berkeley from.  ACMHS was founded in 1974 by community activists who believed that all Americans, including Asian & Pacific Islander (API) immigrants and refugees, deserve the right to have linguistically appropriate and culturally sensitive mental health services.  The event was a celebration of the contribution each of us can make in improving our community whether it is in the social service realm or performance art form. 

“While the agency has changed significantly from its humble beginnings 30 years ago of only eight staff to nearly 100 bilingual and bicultural staff today, the way in which we engage and build support for our communities has not.  As a direct service provider in the API community, we play an important role in providing access to culturally competent mental health and developmental disability services for immigrants, refugees, and low-income APIs.  We, also, serve as an advocate to transform our current health care system to one that integrates language access and cultural appropriateness as part of the system of care, ” said Betty Hong, M.P.H., Executive Director for ACMHS. 

Over the years, science has broadened our knowledge about mental health and illnesses, however, despite the substantial investments that have influenced effective treatments, many Americans are not benefiting from these advances.  Research has consistently shown that APIs are more likely to postpone mental health treatment and as a result suffer from more severe mental health conditions and have longer hospitalizations than other ethnic groups.  Based on our experience working with low-income APIs at ACMHS, nearly one out of two Asians have difficulty accessing mental health services due to two major barriers: cultural shame and stigma that surrounds mental illness and lack of English proficiency.

The afternoon began with a reading by Helen Zia, an award-winning writer and scholar who has covered the Asian American community as well as social and political movements for decades.  Zia read from Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People, a vibrant and touching personal and national journey through key flashpoints on our political and ethnic landscape.  Zia is also the co-author, with Wen Ho Lee, of My Country Versus Me. 

Acclaimed pianist and practicing attorney David Wong played two vivid sets of classical music including pieces by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Chopin.  As a special Halloween treat, Anna de Leon, celebrated jazz vocalist and proprietress of Anna’s Jazz Island, closed the afternoon with an a cappella song about Harriet Tubman, an American abolitionist and one of the most successful conductors of the Underground Railroad.

A diverse cadre of advocates, community leaders, providers, foundations, local political officials and supporters joined ACMHS’ board and staff in recognition of the essential work of ACMHS to improve the quality of life for those Asian & Pacific Islanders who need mental health or developmental disabilities services.

For more information on the event or how you might get involved with ACMHS, please call 510-869-6073, email ea@acmhs.org or visit the website at www.acmhs.org.