NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN PACIFIC ISLANDER MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION

DENVER, Colorado, 80209 United States

Mission Statement

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, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. NAAPIMHA strives to raise awareness of the role of mental health in an individual’s health and well-being, especially in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities throughout the country.

About This Cause

Founded in 2001, NAAPIMHA strengthens the capacity of AANHPI communities, providers and AANHPI serving behavioral health organizations to improve the mental health and well-being of AANHPI communities. The long-term organizational goal is achieved by addressing the mental health needs of all age groups with a particular focus on youth. This includes suicide prevention, empowering individuals with lived experience, improving access to high quality and affordable mental health services that addresses the impact of culture and language, and national policy & advocacy to uplift the mental health needs of AANHPI communities nationwide. In 2021, NAAPIMHA was proud to have taken the lead to get May 10th designated as National Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Mental Health Day in collaboration with the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) to strengthen the dialogue around mental health. NAAPIMHA wants to acknowledge our longstanding relationship with RAMS, Inc. in San Francisco which created the first statewide proclamation making May 10th Asian and Pacific American Mental Health Day in California in 2010 and served as the basis for our national effort. This year, the resolution will be introduced yet again in the House of Representative and a Senate companion will be introduced for the first time this year. At the state and local level, AA and NHPI mental health advocates and organizations from 31 states and cities have submitted proclamation requests. This May 10th, NAAPIMHA will be joined by over 80+ community partner organizations to center and support AA and NHPI mental health in communities nationwide. Increasing access to care is key to eliminating health disparities but for many, there is little for them to access and the pandemic only exacerbated an already serious situation. While there are excellent AA and NHPI serving community based behavioral health organizations, they continue to be overworked and overwhelmed. Improving the mental health workforce has been core to NAAPIMHA’s efforts from its beginning. It accomplished this by developing Growing Our Own, to increase the cultural competence of providers, Achieving Whole Health (AWH) to train individuals to become Wellness Coaches. SAMHSA selected AWH as a best practices model for their NNEDLearn for the past 10 years. AWH uses a whole health approach to train individuals to become Wellness Coaches to address the relationship between mental health and physical health and expanding the workforce to go beyond only those with graduate degrees. NAAPIMHA developed a Mental Health Interpreter Training Project to train interpreters to work in mental health settings and Friends DO Make A Difference to develop mental health leadership among AA and NHPI youth. In response to the growing anti-Asian hate, NAAPIMHA created Asians in Focus* to tell our stories, in our voices using our words and heART’s hope to focus on the healing power of art. We encourage you to visit our website www.naapimha.org to get more information about who we are, what we do, and future events where we can connect. We appreciate any support you can offer. Donations play a key role in our capacity to continue our work.

NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN PACIFIC ISLANDER MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION
565 S. High St
DENVER, Colorado 80209
United States
Unique Identifier 841605911