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Andrew Paves

Sep 22 2017
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2017 AAPA Inaugural Class of Graduate Student Leadership Institute participants

By Announcements, Awards

AAPA Leadership Program Chairs, Drs. Richelle Concepcion and Nellie Tran are pleased and excited to introduce the Inaugural AAPA Graduate Leadership Institute participants!

The leadership institute is an intentional effort to bring AAPA student members together for a 2-day intensive leadership building and networking experience. The Leadership Institute brings individuals together for an intensive period in order to facilitate networking and bonding that will hopefully allow students to continue to work together and support one another.

Please join us in congratulating this outstanding group of people!

The selection process was highly competitive as we received applications from several exceptional candidates. We strongly encourage folks who’ve sought additional supports and opportunities to engage in work they find meaningful outside of their home graduate programs to consider applying next year. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to Dr. Richelle Concepcion or Dr. Nellie Tran.

Sep 19 2017
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AAPA Press Release: DACA Repeal Is Harmful for Immigrant Mental Health

By Press Release, Statements

DACA Repeal Is Harmful for Immigrant Mental Health

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 6, 2017

Contact: Kevin Nadal, Ph.D.,

President, Asian American Psychological Association

kevin.nadal@aapaonline.org | aapaonline.org

NEW YORK: The Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA) strongly condemns the repeal of Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals. With this recent decision, 800,000 DREAMers, who arrived to the U.S. as children, will no longer be protected under federal law and may be deported after 6 months. It is estimated that 16,000 young Asian Americans are currently DACA recipients, and that only about a quarter of eligible Korean (24%), Filipino (26%), and Asian Indians (28%) even applied for the program in the first two years. Thus, there are thousands of other undocumented Asian Americans who could have benefitted from this program.

AAPA recognizes that Asian Americans have experienced many discriminatory immigration laws throughout history- including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (which was the first ban of immigrants from any country and had permanently prevented all Chinese people from entering the US); the Asian Exclusion Act of 1924 (which limited the number of immigrants to 2% of the total number of people from that country already in the US); the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 (which set a quota of 50 Filipinos per year); and the Luce–Celler Act of 1946 (which set an annual quota of 100 for Asian Indians and Filipinos). Due to anti-Asian sentiment, the Filipino Repatriation Act of 1935 provided government funding for transportation to Filipino who promised to never return to the US. However, the majority stayed because they wanted the chance to fulfill their American dreams, and the Supreme Court found the legislation to be unconstitutional.

 

While the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 put an end to immigration quotas, we must remember the history of immigration for Asian Americans – in order to contextualize, and empathize with, DACA recipients and other DREAMers today. Like these earlier immigrants from Asia and other countries who came without documentation, DREAMers merely want the opportunity to thrive in the land of opportunity. DACA recipients are teachers, attorneys, community organizers, health care workers, students, and more. They came to this country as children; they are just as American as those who are born in the US. While there is no logical reason to repeal this program, there are dozens of reasons of why it would be bad for our country – economic loss, dismantled families, mental health consequences for all involved, and more. These Americans should not be criminalized. They did nothing wrong. They cannot be “sent home”; the US is their home.

 

AAPA calls on our U.S. Congress to stop the repeal of DACA, as it threatens the mental health of undocumented families and of all immigrants in general. In his recent essay, Dr. E.J. David, an Associate Professor at the University of Alaska describes the detrimental impact of discrimination on the mental health of immigrants.  He urges: “The U.S. Congress has the power to relieve at least 800,000 people and their families the burden of carrying unnecessary stress. Our elected representatives have the power to stop the stress and its many negative consequences. They have the power to stop the oppression.”

 

Finally to all DREAMers and other undocumented Americans, AAPA pledges to support you; stand with you; and fight with you. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. so eloquently stated, “No one is free until we are all free.”

 

The mission of the Asian American Psychological Association is to advance the mental health and well-being of Asian American communities through research, professional practice, education, and policy.

(http://aapaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/AAPA-Statement_DACA-Repeal.pdf)

Sep 19 2017
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AAJP Vol. 8, No. 3, featuring “Perspectives on Work and Work-related Challenges among Asian Americans with Psychiatric Disabilities” by Milner and Kim

By AAJP, Announcements

Asian American Journal of Psychology | September 2017 Issue
Feature Article & Table of Contents

FEATURE ARTICLE:

Perspectives on Work and Work-related Challenges among Asian Americans with Psychiatric Disabilities
by Uma Chandrika Millner and Min Kim

AAPA would like to congratulate the authors of “Perspectives on Work and Work-related Challenges among Asian Americans with Psychiatric Disabilities,” which has been chosen as the Feature Article of the September 2017 issue. Below is a brief biography of the lead author, Dr. Uma Chandrika Millner, and some reflections on this research experience. We hope that the readers of AAJP will find this Feature and the rest of the issue’s articles to be informative and of benefit to their work. The Feature Article may be downloaded for free here, and the September 2017 issue’s Table of Contents is at the end of this post.

 

Brief Biography of Dr. Uma Chandrika Millner

Dr. Uma Chandrika Millner works as a Research Scientist at Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation and recently joined Lesley University as Assistant Professor. Social justice and multiculturalism form the foundations of her work. Her research interests focus on the community engagement of diverse groups of individuals with psychiatric disabilities with a specific focus on work and employment and Asian mental health.

 

Reflections from the Lead Author

While exploring ideas for his postdoctoral project, Dr. Min Kim first proposed a replication of my Meaning of Work (MoW) study with Asian Americans with psychiatric disabilities. In response, I recall insisting “Let’s make this as simple and uncomplicated as possible.” The MoW study had a complex design combining consensual qualitative research procedures (CQR) with a participatory component. Anyone who has trained and supervised peers in conducting CQR procedures will know how I felt. With large gaps in the psychosocial rehabilitation literature on Asian Americans with psychiatric disabilities, it can be rather tempting to conduct a behemoth of a project. As a researcher from a minority background, it is really hard to resist this temptation. So instead, I insisted on an unambitious study design with a quick turnaround time. We finally agreed on a study that would build on the MoW project and compare the work perspectives of Asian American and White Americans with psychiatric disabilities. However, “simple” turned out to be far more complicated. We could not find a reliable and valid instrument to meet our needs. On top of that, we could not shake the compelling desire to represent the lived experiences of Asian Americans with psychiatric disabilities without which the study just did not seem complete. Hence, the final version of our project evolved to being a mixed methods study that included instrument development, group comparison, and qualitative inquiry procedures. I suppose some lessons in life are not easily learned. To quote Master Oogway (Kungfu Panda), “One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.” The art of simplicity is definitely a work in progress for me . Nonetheless, we are very pleased to be able to share our work and bring this project to the next level. Dr. Kim is already developing the instrument further and we are working on plans to address the community integration needs of Asian American individuals with psychiatric disabilities.

 

AAJP VOLUME 8, ISSUE 3 | TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Articles available on APA PsycNET]

FEATURE ARTICLE: Perspectives on Work and Work-Related Challenges Among Asian Americans With Psychiatric Disabilities [Free download of article]
Uma Chandrika Millner, and Min Kim

Does Emotion Regulation Moderate the Discrimination-Adjustment Link for Adopted Korean American Adolescents? Yekun Qin, Adam Y. Kim, Jenny C. Su, Alison W. Hu, and Richard M. Lee

Latent Profiles of Acculturation and Their Implications for Health: A Study With Asian Americans in Central Texas.
Yuri Jang, Nan Sook Park, David A. Chiriboga, and Miyong T. Kim

Traumatic Experiences and Associated Symptomatology in Asian American Middle School Students.
Elizabeth Davies-Mercier, Michelle W. Woodbridge, W. Carl Sumi, S. Patrick Thornton, Katrina D. Roundfield, Terrence Lee-St. John, Kristen M.Rouspil, and Jennifer Yu

Help-Seeking and Coping Behaviors Among Asian Americans: The Roles of Asian Values, Emotional Intelligence, and Optimism.
Nina Lei, and John Pellitteri

Searching for Connection—Finding Resolution: A Grounded Theory Analysis of Writings of Korean American Adopted Adults.
Oh Myo Kim, Kevin C.Hynes, and Richard M. Lee

The Response to Rural-to-Urban Migration and Other Life Stressors in Shanghai: Effects on Physical and Psychological Well-Being Among Parents of Young Children
Wen-Jui Han, Judith Siegel, and Liwei Zhang

 

Read about the last issue of AAJP: https://aapaonline.org/2017/09/19/aajp-vol-8-no-3-…y-milner-and-kim/
For more information on AAJP: http://aapaonline.org/publications/asian-american-journal-of-psychology/.
Contact: Bryan S. K. Kim, Ph.D., Editor, Asian American Journal of Psychology, bryankim@hawaii.edu

Sep 15 2017
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AAPA 2017-2018 Leadership Fellows

By Announcements, Awards, News

The AAPA Leadership Fellows Program is excited to announce the

2017-2018 AAPA Leadership Fellows

Amanda Breen, Ph.D. & Kimberly Koko Nishi, Psy.D.

 

Dr. Amanda Breen is currently an assistant professor of psychology at Neumann University. She earned her doctorate in Social Psychology from Temple University and her Master’s degree in public health from Drexel University where she also worked as research associate for the School of Public Health’s Center for Hunger-Free Communities. She is deeply committed to addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in her teaching and scholarship. Currently, Dr. Breen is actively working on projects with her students investigating how experiencing stereotype threat in the criminal justice domain might have consequences in the academic domain and examining the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and college major. On the Neumann campus, Dr. Breen continues to work on fostering an inclusive environment for students, faculty and staff of color, LGBTQIAA students, low-income and first-generation college students, and any all others from historically marginalized communities.

Dr. Koko Nishi is a licensed psychologist and serves as the Outreach Coordinator for Counseling and Psychological Services at San Diego State University. Dr. Nishi completed her Masters in Psychology and Education at Teachers College Columbia University and her doctorate in in Clinical Psychology from George Washington University and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at University of California, San Diego with an emphasis in suicide prevention and mental health promotion. Her clinical interests include anxiety, depression, trauma, multicultural and diversity issues, intersectionality, identity integration, and Asian/Asian-American mental health. Dr. Nishi is passionate about collaborating with campus partners to create outreach programs that raise awareness and promote resources to help reduce mental health stigma, particularly within underrepresented populations. 

Please join us in welcoming our newest AAPA Leadership Fellows!

Sep 01 2017
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AAPA Statement Against Racial Violence and Hatred

By Statements

AAPA Statement Against Racial Violence and Hatred

The Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA) condemns the racism, domestic terrorism and hatred perpetrated by White supremacist and neo-Nazi groups in recent weeks, particularly in Charlottesville, Virginia. We extend our condolences to the family of Heather Heyer, the state troopers who were killed, and the injured peaceful protesters during this assault.

In 2017, it is a mistake to believe our nation is immune to racial attack. As Asian Americans, we recognize the legacy of White supremacy and racism in the United States which continues to affect and traumatize communities of color. To imply that those who fight racism and those who perpetrate it have similar intentions is to demean the suffering and courageous acts of our predecessors, many of whom gave their lives in a fight against intolerance. For these reasons, we join the Association for Black Psychologists (ABPsi), the American Psychological Association (APA), the National Council on Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), and many other organizations in unequivocally rejecting the hateful acts of these groups and call on others to do the same.

We denounce all forms of racism and bigotry – from the increased number of hate crimes in recent months to the microaggressions that people of color face in their daily lives. Since its inception, AAPA has understood the damaging effects of racism, discrimination, and race-based trauma, which often lead to significant consequences for mental health, physical health, and one’s ability to thrive. As Asian Americans, we share in the fear, mourning, and outrage that our communities are experiencing in the face of prejudice and oppression. We stand in solidarity with communities who have been targeted most by this hate – particularly Black, Jewish, Latinx, Muslim, Sikhs, and LGBTQ people.

AAPA recommits to our members, and to those affected, that we will actively stand with you in these moments. We will continue to protect the rights of disenfranchised communities as they fight for social justice, equity and healing. We are with you.

In Solidarity,

Asian American Psychological Association

 

Resources

Family Care, Community Care and Self Care Toolkit: Healing in the Face of Cultural Trauma

https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/07-20-16-EEC-Trauma-Response-Community-and-SelfCare-TookKit-1.pdf

Racial Trauma Black Lives Matter Meditation http://drcandicenicole.com/2016/07/black-lives-matter-meditation/

Charlottesville Solidarity Events by U.S. Region

http://act.indivisibleguide.com/event/stand-in-solidarity-with-charlottesville/

RYSE Presents: Revealing White Privilege and Racial Trauma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR9ssA1b0yo

People of Color and Mental Illness Photo Project

http://diorvargas.com/poc-mental-illness/

 

* This statement was written by Alexandra Rivera, Devika Srivastava, Jennifer Hsia, Fanny Ng, Helen Hsu, Richelle Concepcion, Kevin Nadal, and the AAPA Policy Committee

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