On behalf of the Board of Directors, staff, and the community we serve at Asian Community Mental Health Services (ACMHS), we want to thank you for your support and investment in ACMHS. Every gift allows us to expand our critical work to serve immigrant children, youth, adults, families, and seniors who struggle to gain access to culturally competent care. Thank you for the important role you play in supporting the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community!

One of ACMHS’ largest dreams became a reality recently when we established a new unit of integrated and comprehensive, early intervention and treatment, services for children and youth. The Children and Youth Integrated Program will impact more than 700 clients and their families each year, both insured and uninsured, and will create a no-wrong door safety-net, a one-stop shop consisting of a wide range of wellness interventions promoting resiliency for API children and youth, from birth to 21 years of age.

Because of your generous financial support, we will be able to develop more language capabilities to better serve the API community, create innovative and holistic interventions such as peer-to-peer mentoring, support groups, bullying prevention, and positive enrichment activities.

Again, thank you for collaborating with us by making a year-end gift. This will help us transform the lives of underserved API children, youth, parents, and families.

Sincerely,

Lily Lue Stearns, Ph.D.
Executive Director & CEO

PS: Did you know you can double your contribution through your company’s matching gifts program? Please contact your corporate foundation or contributions department representative for more information.

ACMHS supports the 2011 Advancing Justice Conference.  The two-day conference will be held at Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco.  The Advancing Justice Conference is a national civil rights and social justice conference that aims to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders in one place to address a broad range of issues facing the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

For more information, visit http://advancingjustice.org/conference/2011/index.php

For more information, please contact Melinda Capiraso at 415.821.9693.

On behalf of the Asian Community Mental Health Services staff & board, we wish you a very
Happy 2011 New Year and Happy Lunar New Year of the Rabbit!

We are reminded by the recent events in Arizona how important mental health services are to
a community. We are saddened that despite these events the Governor of California recently
announced severe cuts to the mental health programs in California. I ask for your continued
support even as ACMHS forges ahead during these hard times and budget cuts. At ACMHS, we
look forward to expanding our life-changing programs and services in 2011. We remain
focused and committed to helping the underserved Asian and Pacific Islander (API)
community gain access to culturally competent care. Our consumers have persevered
through difficult times, overcome innumerous challenges, and worked hard to lead
productive and successful lives. They inspire us daily and we are motivated to provide
the best programs and services which they need and deserve.

With the support of community partners like you, we’ve made great strides in caring for
the API community in the past. We’ve continued to reach new clients, provide quality
care, and expand programs. Thank you for sharing in our success. Here are some of
ACMHS’ recent accomplishments:

• Launched a new child psychiatry program
• Started a tele-psychiatry pilot program
• Expanded services to include comprehensive psychological testing
• Collaborated with Asian Health Services to implement Primary and Behavioral
  Health Care Integration Project
• Helped clients navigate mental health and social services and supported other
  community agencies to build capacity through API Connections
• Provided community outreach and psycho-education classes

In addition to our important work with consumers, we recently welcomed two dynamic
leaders to our executive team, Chief Operations Officer Katherine Chun, Ph.D., and
Chief Compliance Officer Jane Yi, Ph.D. (abd). Both have served at ACMHS in various
roles and leadership positions over the years, and their heart and passion for struggling
families will help take ACMHS to a new level of excellence.

Thank you for your continued support of ACMHS and our consumers. Please explore
our Web site to learn about ACMHS’ services and our work in the East Bay.

In Health,

Lily Lue Stearns, Ph.D.
Executive Director

Dr. Katherine Chun is a veteran ACMHS leader who helped pioneer the 0-5
Comprehensive Early Childhood Mental Health Service Delivery Model for the API
community in Alameda County. Under the guidance of the Executive Director and
CEO, the Executive Management Team and the Board of Directors, Katherine’s new
responsibilities include oversight of the Clinic, Children and Youth programs and Family
Support Services and Rehabilitation, Developmental Disabilities programs.

“I’m looking forward to working with a dynamic executive team, to aim high and build
bridges and connect people and programs,” Katherine said. “I want to collaborate with
everyone, work with our very talented and dynamic staff, network with new partners, and
help create and bring our vision, our dream for our agency to reality.”

With her extensive experience in the clinical field working with Asian and Pacific
Islander populations the last 25 years, Katherine brings a wealth of insight and expertise
as an advocate, training consultant and advisor on planning and policy committees. She
joined ACMHS in 1988.

Katherine describes her experience with the underserved API population as rewarding
and humbling. “The work is hard and emotional and full of challenges, but we don’t
feel alone or hopeless,” Katherine said. “We feel very connected to each other, to our
community, and we hope the community we serve feels the same.”

The Hong Kong-born and Hawaii-raised native earned her Master’s degrees in Social
Welfare and Public Health, as well as her Ph.D. in Education specializing in School
Psychology at U.C. Berkeley. She earned her undergraduate degree at UC Davis.

Jane Yi, Ph.D. (abd)
Chief Compliance Officer

Jane Yi is responsible for the overall compliance including risk management, safety
issues, quality assurance, and drafting and implementation of compliance policies
and procedures under the guidance of the Executive Director and CEO, the Executive
Management Team, and the Board of Directors. Jane is also coordinating and monitoring
ACMHS’ new $2 million SAMHSA Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration
Grant in addition to co-planning the 2011 ACMHS Gala.

“Launching this collaborative grant with Asian Health Services will greatly increase
accessibility to primary care for our consumers,” Jane said of the SAMHSA Primary and
Behavioral Health Care grant. “This is an exciting new project that will positively impact
our clients and improve their quality of life.”

Jane joined ACMHS in 2007 as project supervisor for a substance abuse treatment
program serving youth. She also completed her pre-doctoral internship at ACMHS in
2009.

Jane is currently completing her dissertation. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Clinical
Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She holds a master’s degree in Counseling
Psychology from the same school and completed her undergraduate studies at
Washington University in St. Louis with a double major in International Relations and
Cultural Anthropology.

Welcome to Asian Community Mental Health Services’ remodeled website! We are excited to share our updated look and logo with you.

Our new logo reflects our renewed commitment to providing quality wellness services to the East Bay. At the core of the design is a budding bamboo stalk representing the resiliency of the human spirit and its capacity for growth. It is a fitting representation of both the agency and of our consumers who inspire us everyday with their courage to reach beyond what society too often prescribes for them. Through our programs and services, we are proud to assist more than 3,000 consumers a year to achieve their goals of living more healthy and participatory lives.

We invite you to explore our website to learn about ACMHS’ services and our work in the broader community. To stay up-to-date with our latest news, consider joining our e-newsletter by signing up below.

Thank you for your continued support of ACMHS.

In Health,

Lily Lue Stearns, Ph.D.
Executive Director

When: Friday, August 20, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Where: ACMHS, Asian Resource Building, 310 8th Street (between Webster St. & Harrison St.), Oakland
Program: Download HERE.

Last August during our first O&E, ACMHS presented an overview of mental health and developmental disabilities clinical terminology, services, and concepts from the developmental/age group perspective. This year, we are presenting an overview of specific mental health issues and some of the emerging concerns within underserved communities, especially the Burmese (i.e., all ethnicities originating in Burma). The focus is on the Burmese because of the continuing growth in their accessing services at ACMHS. It is our intention that workers and volunteers in other underserved and un-served communities and in other locations will replicate similar O&E in their cultural context and locale.

The program is targeted towards Burmese, Bhutanese, Nepalese, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Sri Lankan bilingual volunteers, health care workers, and professional interpreters who are already in the health and human services fields or are seriously considering working/volunteering in those fields.

TARGET PARTICIPANT NUMBER: 22. Application and RSVP/firm commitment required. Please contactSann Sann Myint at 510-869-6047 or sannm@acmhs.org with questions.

This O&E is not funded by any grant. This is part of ACMHS’s efforts to address the lack of native direct service providers in the underserved and unserved communities.