Community Receptivity and Acceptance of Asian Americans with Severe and Persistent Mental Illness

Project Summary:
The purpose of this study is to gain a greater understanding of barriers and facilitators of community re-integration of people with mental illness from the perspective of key stakeholders in four Asian communities in Southern California.

Project Description:
This proposal is designed to build on preliminary findings from an NIMH funded R34 (Yamada) to address the challenge of community integration for Asian Americans who continue to have the greatest disparities in mental health service use (Alegria et al., 2004) and often turn instead toward community-based resources. The specific aims are: (1) to explore the subjective experiences of consumers, families, and providers regarding community reintegration; (2) to develop a culturally responsive measure of community acceptance and receptivity to the integration of persons with severe mental illness; and (3) to conduct a small pilot test of the measure to refine items, assess face validity and reliability. The ultimate goal of the proposed work is to inform the development of interventions that can overcome stigma barriers to promote inclusion of people with mental illness in meaningful community-based activities such as attending a church/temple.

Project Investigator(s):
Ann Marie Yamada

Research Period: 08/16/09 - 05/31/10

Funding Source: Larson Endowment for Innovative Research and Teaching

Total Award Amount: $ 37,927