On July 20, the Biden-Harris Administration hosted its inaugural mental health summit focused on improving equity and access to behavioral health care for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) communities. The historic event, hosted by the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), is being held in recognition of National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month and builds on the Administration’s unprecedented investments to connect more Americans to care.
Dr. Doris Chang, our co-PI of the CARA/ABRA project, spoke about ABRA data and the mental health and activism among LGBTQ Asian Americans.
I also want to point out we looked at LGBTQ populations within our Asian American sample and found extraordinarily high rates of exposure to discrimination and high rates of suicidal ideation.
So we want to acknowledge the incredible diversity, heterogeneity, and experiences. (…) This moment has also been a really incredible moment of awakening for so many of us.