Culturally Adapted Depression Assessment for Chinese Americans: How to Reduce Mental Health Disparities and Improve Access to Care

The workshop will cover culturally based symptom expressions for depression, including psychological, somatic, and interpersonal symptoms, used by Chinese American adolescents, adults, and older adults and how healthcare and community providers can better detect depression and engage clients with mental health care. The workshop showcases educational videos and symptom checklists developed by the San Francisco Bay Area Chinese Community Depression Education Project. The project used a community-based participatory approach to develop culturally sensitive tools to address disparities in mental health and access to services. While the assessment and educational tools were developed for a Chinese-speaking population, they are also applicable to other communities.

What will you learn in this workshop?

• Articulate a Chinese culture-based construct of depression with three dimensions—psychological, somatic and interpersonal;
• Articulate Chinese culture-specific expressions of depressive distress used by Chinese Americans;
• Articulate how you can integrate culturally sensitive depression assessment and educational tools into your professional practice and social services with Chinese speaking patients/clients;
• Recognize differences in the differential endorsement of depressive symptoms based on level of acculturation to U.S. society, gender, education, and other factors.

Who is this workshop for?

• Behavioral health care providers who work with Asian American communities.
• Members of Asian American community-based organizations.
• Asian American individuals and those who support them.

DOWNLOADS & REPLAY

• Slideshow
• Handouts

Workshop Presenters

Rose Wong, PhD, MPA, LCSW

(she/her/hers)

Director of Social Work at Palo Alto University

Rose Wong is the Director of Social Work at Palo Alto University, where she is starting a master of social work (MSW) program with a specialization in culturally informed behavioral health. Prior to this position, she served as associate professor and department chair of social work at California State University East Bay and as founding director of the MSW program at University of the Pacific. Before earning her master’s and doctoral degrees in social welfare from UC Berkeley, she studied public and international affairs at Princeton University and public administration and psychology in universities in France.

In Dr. Wong’s research, she teams up with community professionals to develop culturally sensitive mental health educational materials in Chinese language, including brochures with symptom checklists and videos for use by professionals and community members. Dr. Wong’s practice experience in the Asian American immigrant community includes counseling for children and families who experienced domestic violence and supporting the implementation of integrated care treatment programs for older adults with depression. In 2022, Dr. Wong published a book entitled, Which Evidence-Based Practice Should I Use?: A Social Worker’s Handbook for Decision Making.