Mental Wellness Resources

A non-comprehensive list of mental wellness resources for AAPI and journalists, including research, training programs, and culturally competent coverage.

Updated as of February 25, 2021.

Mental Wellness Resources for AAPI journalists

GENERAL RESOURCES

AAPI Mental Health

Asian American Psychological Association – AAPA: AAPA advocates on behalf of Asian Americans with regards to Asian American psychology and mental health issues. The group aims to provide training and education of Asian American mental health professionals through collaboration and networking with peers. 

AAPA Fact Sheet includes research and statistics on mental health issues related to substance use, trauma and violence, intimate partner violence, college adjustment, bullying and suicide among AAPIs.  

Asian American Health Initiative: The Asian American Health Initiative (AAHI), part of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, seeks to improve the health and wellness of Asian American communities by applying equity, community engagement, and data-driven approaches.

AAHI Resource Library: Contains a series of mental health photo-novels available in Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Hindi; mental health toolkits and educational videos

National Alliance on Mental Illness: The National Alliance on Mental Illness is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.

Asian American and Pacific Islander includes statistics on barriers to mental health care that AAPIs face, tips on how to seek culturally competent care and a resource list. 

National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association: The mission of the National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association (NAAPIMHA) is to promote the mental health and well being of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Since its founding, NAAPIMHA strives to raise awareness of the role of mental health in an individual’s health and well-being, especially in Asian American Pacific Islander communities throughout the country.

AANHPI Service Providers | NAAPIMHA: List of mental health and behavioral services for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.

South Asian Therapists: Global directory of South Asian therapists, including therapists of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Afghani and Nepali heritage. Find culturally competent South Asian mental health professionals to help you get the support you’re looking for.

South Asian Mental Health Initiative & NetworkSouth Asian Mental Health Initiative and Network, SAMHIN, is a non-profit that addresses the mental health needs of the South Asian community in the U.S. Their goal is to decrease the stigma and shame associated with mental illness and offer resources for people who seek help.

Mental Health Service Providers: Directory of mental health services providers who have registered with SAMHIN.

Asian Mental Health Collective: The Asian Mental Health Collective aspires to make mental health easily available, approachable, and accessible to Asian communities worldwide. Their mission is to normalize and de-stigmatize mental health within the Asian community.

Asian American Health Office of Minority Health: The federal Office of Minority Health is dedicated to improving the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate health disparities.

Pacific Asian Counseling Services – PACS: Pacific Asian Counseling Services (PACS) is a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles dedicated to healing people with mental illness through counseling and caring. PACS strives to provide linguistically diverse and culturally sensitive services, with an expertise on refugee and immigrant Asian Pacific Islander populations.

Take Action for Mental Health – California’s Mental Health Movement: Take Action for Mental Health, part of California’s ongoing mental health movement, is designed to help you check in, learn more, and get support for your own mental health or the mental health of someone you care about.

Journalists’ Mental Health

American Psychiatric Association | APA’s Reporter Toolkit: Recommendations on Covering the AAPI Community is a resource for journalists and reporters whose work can support the mental health needs of the AAPI community and help to address upstream factors.

Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma: The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, is dedicated to news reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy. The Dart Center provides journalists around the world with the resources necessary to report on traumatic events, drawing on a global, interdisciplinary network of news professionals, mental health experts, educators and researchers.

Fact Sheet: An overview of current research on the occupational hazards for journalists covering traumatic events, the risk factors that aggravate those effects, and some suggestions for mitigating those factors.

Journalism Emergency Funds | International Women’s Media Foundation: IWMF provides journalists with emergency funds to support needs related to their work, for instance immediate medical aid or long-term needs such as trauma and mental health services. 

Mental Health and Journalism Toolkit | International Journalists’ Network (ijnet): Through reported resources and podcast interviews, ijnet’s toolkit explores root causes, overlapping burdens and possible solutions for mental health issues that plague journalists, from post-traumatic stress disorder to digital wellness. 

READINGS & RESEARCH

AAPI Mental Health

Asian American/Pacific Islander Communities and Mental Health | Mental Health America

Mental Health Among Asian-Americans | American Psychological Association

Asian American and Pacific Islander | National Alliance on Mental Illness

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) | Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 

Why Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders Don’t go to Therapy | National Alliance on Mental Illness

Why Asian Mental Health? | Asian Mental Health Collective 

My PTSD can be a weight. But in this pandemic, it feels like a superpower | Stephanie Foo, Vox 

Journalists’ Mental Health

Journalists as vicarious first responders | American Psychological Association

COVID-19 is hurting journalists’ mental health. News outlets should help them now | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism 

Covering Trauma: Impact on Journalists | Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma 

Mental health tips and resources for journalists | International Journalists’ Network 

Managing stress and digital overload as a journalist | International Journalists’ Network 

TRAININGS, CONFERENCES & CONVENTIONS

Achieving Whole Health | National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association: The Achieving Whole Health training provides a creative, interactive and culturally relevant way of improving both health and mental health outcomes for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander communities. Participants learn how to take an active role in improving their own health as well as learning ways to help others.

TransformAsian | Asian Mental Health Collective: Virtual conference hosted by Asian Mental Health Collective, aimed at reconciling Asian cultural values and perceptions of mental health. Recording of 2021 conference is available here.

AAPA Annual Convention | Asian American Psychological Association: AAPA’s national convention featuring presentations by researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. This event provides an educational forum on issues in Asian American psychology and Asian American mental health. Programming from past conventions can be downloaded here.

Journalism and Trauma | Poynter: This self-directed course teaches journalists how to understand and approach traumatic stress when interviewing victims and covering events such as violent crimes, horrific accidents, natural disasters and other situations involving human pain and suffering. The course also teaches journalists how to take care of their own health after covering a traumatic event.

For more resources from AAPI mental health experts and coverage of AAPI mental wellness, check out aajastudio.org.

If you have mental health resources or coverage that you’d like to add, please contact support@ajaa.org.

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