ASIAN AMERICAN FEDERATION OF NEW YORK LAUNCHES JOINT PROGRAM TO PROVIDE IMPROVED MENTAL HEALTH CARE FOR ASIAN AMERICANS AFFECTED BY SEPTEMBER 11TH

Recovery Grant Supports Five-Agency Initiative To Serve Elderly Chinatown Residents and Families of World Trade Center Victims

NEW YORK � The Asian American Federation of New York, a nonprofit leadership organization, today announced it has launched and will lead a five-agency initiative to increase the quality, supply and use of services geared to meet cultural and language needs of Asian Americans in the New York metropolitan area who continue to experience emotional trauma resulting from the events of September 11th.

The �Building Bridges and Leveraging Assets for Community Recovery� project is supported by a September 11 recovery grant from the American Red Cross Liberty Disaster Relief Fund.

Building on landmark Federation research, the innovative one-year program will provide accessible, culturally-appropriate mental health services to two particularly vulnerable groups that have not been served sufficiently by existing programs: elderly Chinatown residents, and New York City and New Jersey families of Asian Americans who died in the World Trade Center attacks.

The Federation will collaborate with four community-based organizations: Asian LifeNet (ALN), Korean American Family Service Center (KAFSC), the New Jersey Asian American Association for Human Services (NJAAAHS) and the South Asian Council of Social Services (SACSS).

�Three and a half years after September 11th, Chinatown�s senior citizens and Asian American victims� families continue to need truly responsive professional support to deal with long-term emotional issues, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress syndrome and family tensions,� said Cao K. O, executive director of the Asian American Federation. �The program we are leading is designed to meet these populations� specific needs.�

Responding to findings in the Federation�s 2003 research report titled Asian American Mental Health: A Post-September 11th Needs Assessment, the new program will:
• Reach out to targeted populations and serve them in familiar, accessible settings, such as senior centers, community centers, agency offices and housing complexes, rather than in hospitals and clinics.
• Provide specialized training to help front-line staff members assess mental health needs, including those related to aging; inform individuals about mental health issues; engage targeted populations in obtaining assistance; and make appropriate referrals.
• Strengthen means of connecting people in need with suitable service providers, for example, by forming and consulting a group of experts in Asian American mental health.
• Enlarge the pool of qualified professionals available to serve targeted populations, via linkages between bilingual Asian American professionals in mainstream institutions and community agencies.