Cultural Competent Care: How This Sacramento Nonprofit Helps AAPI Communities Combat Suicide

June 24, 2024

Supporting Community Connections prioritizes wellness as a means of early suicide prevention, said Lakshmi Malroutu, chief operations officer for Asian Pacific Community Counseling. By providing services and events that clients enjoy, it promotes socialization and reduces feelings of isolation. From weekly ballroom dancing, which is commonly enjoyed by older Vietnamese population, to tai chi, meditation and trips to religious temples and churches, Supporting Community Connections’ services seek to be non-intrusive, Malroutu said. Hmong, Cantonese and Vietnamese are apart of the seven threshold languages in Sacramento, meaning they are popular primary languages spoken in the city besides English. Nationwide, 45% of Vietnamese people in the United States have limited English proficiency, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Asian Pacific Community Counseling opened in 1976, when Asian women came to the United States as war brides and when refugees fled Vietnam, said Malroutu. A year prior to Asian Pacific Community Counseling’s creation, the fall of Saigon resulted in almost 2 million Vietnamese fleeing the country by boat, according to the National Bureau of Asian Research. More than 500,000 people had died or disappeared along the way.

There is a dire need for mental health services and suicide prevention for Asian and Pacific Islander communities. A 2018 report learned nearly 73% of Asian and Pacific Islander with a mental illness have not receive treatment. The United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health found suicide was the leading cause of death for Asian and Pacific Islanders ages 15 to 24 in 2019. While Asian communities receive significant support from their families and are resilient, they still need mental health resources. It was this gap in proper mental health care for Asian communities that prompted Asian Pacific Community Counseling’s founders to create the nonprofit.

Read more at SacBee.com.