Copyright 2000 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
October 18, 2000, Wednesday 2 STAR EDITION
SECTION: THISWEEK; Pg. 16
LENGTH: 1456 words
HEADLINE: A
Golden Harvest of help;
Gala draws attention to mental health needs of
Asian-American community
SOURCE: Staff
BYLINE: CHUNHUA ZEN ZHENG
BODY:
OFFICIALS, health professionals, social
workers and the emotional testimony of two Vietnamese women drew attention to
the immediate mental health needs of the local Asian-American community during
an awards gala in southwest Houston.
Mental health services in the
greater Houston Asian community have long been overlooked and are urgently
needed, said speakers at the recent first Golden Harvest Award Dinner at Ocean
Palace Restaurant.
The event, part of the traditional Asian mid-autumn
Moon Festival celebration, was sponsored by the Houston-based Asian American
Family Counseling Center to honor Houston City Council member Gordon Quan and
the Dallas-based Hogg Foundation for Mental Health for their commitment to
serving the local minority populations.
Receiving the Golden Harvest
Award with Quan, Charles Bonjean, Hogg Foundation executive director, said Asian
Americans in Houston are "underserved" in mental health services and praised
AAFCC for its pioneer endeavor in addressing these needs.
"We are
pleased to receive the award, but it's them (AAFCC) who should receive our
award," said Bonjean. "They are extremely cutting-edge in offering the services
to Asian Americans in Houston and are fulfilling a real need that has never been
met before. We think very highly of their staff who have confirmed our high
expectation." Established in 1940 by the Houston Hogg family, the Hogg
Foundation has funded programs for both mental health service projects and
research efforts in Texas, with a focus on children and their families, youth
development and minority mental health. Annual funding statewide amounts to more
than $ 1 million, Bonjean said.
For the first time in its 60 years of
history, the foundation reached out to the Asian-American community in 1997
offering AAFCC a three-year grant.
With this support, AAFCC, a nonprofit
organization formed in 1994, established the first comprehensive service in
Houston to connect Asian-American children and families with resources in
health, mental health and other human services.
AAFCC, a nonprofit
organization forged by a group of health professionals and advocates, was not
fully operational until receiving the grant.
"There is a great need for
culturally-sensitive programs for the Asian community. The only population
underserved in mental health is indeed the Asian Americans," said Bonjean. "We
have previously served the population of Mexican origin and African Americans.
This is our first major service project exclusively for the Asian community."
Normally the grant is intended for no more than three years, but Bonjean
said it's possible for AAFCC to get continued funding if the group develops
innovative programs.
At the gala, award recipient Quan, an attorney
specializing in immigration law, was remembered for his counseling of a number
of underprivileged and troubled students when he was a Scout leader and a
teacher with the Houston Independent School district.
Receiving the
award in a token of a wheat bouquet symbolizing the "bountiful harvest" of the
service to minority mental health, the city councilman was recognized for his
active involvement and support of a number of civic and community organizations,
including the AAFCC.
In recognition of AAFCC's work, Harris County Judge
Robert Eckels declared the day of the event Asian American Family Counseling
Center Day.
Official endorsement of the Asian group's effort also
included that of Garnet Coleman, State Representative since 1991.
Testifying on his personal experience of battling depression, Coleman
pointed out that mental illness affects millions of Americans regardless of
ethnicity or socio-economic status.
"A lot of them suffer serious mental
illness. You see them walking down the streets in downtown Houston, you see them
in our county jails, you see them in our state hospitals, and you see them in
the Harris County Psychiatric Center," said Coleman.
He said illnesses
can be managed with proper medication and treatment.
However, the new
drugs referred to as the "atypical, anti-psychotic new generation" medications
are costly, unavailable to everybody, and have side effects, he said.
Conquering the illness, said Coleman, "requires the understanding of the
community in which we live."
This is what the AAFCC has been doing, he
said.
"They (the patients) can walk into the Asian American Family
Counseling Center to get the 'medication' they need without the side effects
that most medications have."
Coleman, an advocate for public health on
the legislative level, urged more government funding and tax dollars for the
needs of the mentally ill without health insurance.
"This is a deadly
disease, because many people end up losing their lives," he said.
Coleman said the infrastructure dealing with mental health disease is
diminishing, citing the decrease of the 12 hospitals for mental illness formerly
existing in Houston to the current four, of which Ben Taub Hospital has only 16
dedicated beds.
"There needs to be enough resources through the
government sector to make sure that people who do not have health insurance have
the opportunity to get care," Coleman said.
"We will make sure that
state-chartered health insurance plans and plans at the federal
level have mental health coverage with the same amount of
treatment you would get for heart condition. There will be no one discriminated
against in their health care coverage."
U.S. Bureau of Census
projections for the last decade anticipated Houston's Asian population in the
year 2000 to be 7 percent, or 140,000 people within the city's population.
Jerry Wood, deputy assistant director of the city's Planning and
Development Department, said the estimated Asian population in the metropolitan
area stands between 200,000 and 250,000, as mirrored by the public schools'
Asian student enrollment.
Nationwide, the 1990 census shows a much
faster growth rate of Asians and Pacific Islanders than any other ethnic
minority groups.
The projected growth rate from the 1990's 8.4 million
Asian population will reach its all-time high with a 100 percent increase by the
year 2009.
With AAFCC being the only entity dedicated to serving the
local Asian-American community, attendants of the award dinner said the meeting
spotlighted the plight of this ethnic group mental health
coverage.
AAFCC president Patrick Leung, who is also associate
professor of University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work, said mental
health problems among the Asian community are seldom addressed despite the
demographic profile.
Studies indicated that only 1.46 percent, or 480
Asian people were served by the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority
of Harris County between 1997 and 1998, with whites comprising 40.5 percent,
African Americans 34.98 percent, Hispanics 6.16 percent and 6.16 percent others.
"In the Asian community, the most common stereotype of mental health is
that it is a Western study of mental illness and that a typical Asian individual
would not and should not have mental health problems," said Leung.
"I
see language and cultural barriers as two major problems facing our clients.
Culturally, counseling is still a foreign concept to most Asians. Also, they are
afraid of the stigma of mental health," said Kim Szeto, executive director of
AAFCC.
AAFCC clients' age range from 3-70 years old, with 39 percent
adolescents and 50 percent between the ages of 21-50.
According to AAFCC
records, adolescents sought help from AAFCC mostly by orders of school
counselors or the court.
Their problems include truancy, depression,
domestic violence, rape, child abuse, drug abuse and gun problems, often
compounded with generational conflict and cultural identity crisis, Szeto said.
"Too often, parents ignore their kids' signs of problems. All they care
is to make sure their kids' school work is good so they can make a better living
in the future. It's an Asian myth that Asians don't have problems," Szeto said.
Szeto said a 16-year-old American-born Korean girl from a poor family
with parents in discord was referred to AAFCC by the hospital, which treated and
released her after her three failed suicide attempts.
Meanwhile, Szeto
said the problem the Asian elderly is facing also is cultural.
"They
don't speak English, don't drive, and are not eating the right type of food. It
affects how they look at the world. Many feel isolated and lonely," Szeto said.
"They don't understand how the system works and don't know how to access the
system."
Most AAFCC clients have low-to-moderate income, with many below
the poverty line, said Szeto.
For information about AAFCC, call
713-339-3688, or visit the group's Web site at www.aafcc.org.
GRAPHIC: Photo : From left: Houston City
Council member Gordon Quan, Asian American Family Counseling Center Golden
Harvest honoree for mental health work; state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston;
Patrick Leung, AAFCC president; and Charles M. Bonjean, executive director of
the Hogg Foundation of Mental Health, also honored with a Golden Harvest award;
listen to a speech during a gala given on Asian-American mental health at Ocean
Palace Restaurant.; R. Clayton McKee photo
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