- This event has passed.
We Need to Talk About It: Stigma, Shame, and the Importance of Conversations about Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in AANHPI Families and Communities
September 25, 2023 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am HST
This webinar will explore issues that constrain AANHPIs from talking about mental health and suicide and ways we can address these concerns. We will consider how the model minority myth, health disparities, and cultural mismatch of services and interventions impact AANHPIs’ ability to start conversations about mental health and suicide prevention with our families, friends, and in our communities. We will consider the importance of cultural humility when addressing mental health concerns, especially cross-culturally and strategies to break the silence around these critical issues.
What will you learn in this workshop?
- Some of the issues that constrain AANHPIs from addressing mental health and suicide in our communities including the impact of the model minority myth, social determinants of health, and cultural framing of mental health concerns.
- The importance of cultural humility in MH and suicide prevention work
- Strategies and considerations when addressing MH in AANHPI communities
Who is this workshop for?
- Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community members
- AANHPI allies and advocates
- Behavior health professionals
This event has passed. You can watch the replay on our YouTube, or here on the website.
Workshop Presenters
Pata Suyemoto, Ph.D.
Director of training and NAAPIEN (National Asian American Pacific Islander Empowerment Network), National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association (NAAPIMHA)
Dr. Pata Suyemoto is a feminist scholar, writer, educator, curriculum developer, equity trainer, mental health activist, jewelry designer, and avid bicyclist. She earned her PhD. from the University of Pennsylvania and did her research on anti-racist education and issues of race and racism. She is the Training Director for the National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association (NAAPIMHA) and a master trainer for NAAPIMA’s Achieving Whole Health Program.
Pata is the director of the National Asian American Pacific Islander Empowerment Network, which is a network of Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) with lived-experience related to mental health concerns. She is the Associate Director of Equity for the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention (MCSP) and the co-chair of the Greater Boston Regional Suicide Prevention Coalition. Pata is also founder and co-chair of the MCSP Alliance for Equity and one of the authors of Widening the Lens: Exploring the Role of Social Justice in Suicide Prevention – A Racial Equity Toolkit.
She has spoken and written about being a suicide attempt survivor and her struggles with chronic depression and complex PTSD. She is a co-founder of The Breaking Silences Project, which is an artistic endeavor that educates about the high rates of depression and suicide among Asian American young women. Pata is a member of a number of boards and committees including the MCSP’s Executive Committee, the planning committee for the annual Asian American Mental Health Forum, and MGH CARE Trustees. Her claim to fame is that she rode her bicycle across the country in the summer of 2012.
