NAWHO interviewed Beatrice to talk about her accomplishments, and to learn more about her vision for a community-driven health care system for Asian Americans.

Would you please share with us some of your personal history?

Like a lot of Chinese families, I had a grandfather who came to the United States in the 1930s and would send money back to China. I was born in Hong Kong, and my family moved to the US when I was four years old.  I was the youngest of seven kids in the family. We had a very traditional family with traditional expectations. Although I was the youngest, I had a lot of responsibilities because most of my siblings were out of the house, going to college or working. It was mainly me and my brother in the house. We were just a year apart, and even though he was older, I still had to do most of the work!

We spent a little time in San Francisco and then lived in Mountain View for a few years. We moved to Oakland when I was a teenager, and it was a culture shock for me. Mountain View was predominately white, and Oakland was so diverse. I then went to UC Berkeley and at that time, Asians were still a minority. But the Asian American Studies department was strong, and I learned a lot from them.

I’m married with two girls. My husband has been very supportive of my work, taking care of the kids and helping out. That’s made it possible for me to work late nights and do all the things an executive director needs to do. Now one of my daughters is in her second year of college and the other is in high school. It’s been really rewarding to raise children with the values that you believe in and want to share. My older daughter is pursuing health and human services, but more likely in the area of law and domestic violence prevention, and that’s been really great to see. 

What inspired/motivated you to become involved in health care?

My interest in working with nonprofits and social issues was rooted in my growing up in Oakland.  There was a summer youth training program that placed youth in nonprofit organizations. My first placement was at Asian Law Caucus, where I did typing and filing, and learned about community work. I also worked with East Bay Asian Youth Center. This experience was so important, for me and for a lot diverse youth in those days who otherwise might not have thought about working for nonprofits. I originally planned on being something like a dental hygienist and majoring in the health sciences! But I ended up majoring in psychology, and I think this youth program had a big impact on that and my current work.

I liked the nonprofit world, and I liked the idea of health, but I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. After graduation, I started working for the Oakland Chinese Community Council, which is now called Family Bridges. I was there for seven years and became the family services director. I learned a lot about different social services and the needs of the API community. It was here where I also saw how fragmented the system was for people and how difficult it was to navigate, and realized that the system needed to change to fit the community.

After Family Bridges, I went to work in San Francisco for Asian American Recovery Services. I ran their youth risk prevention program, which was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). It was a great service delivery model that involved multiple agencies and focused on collaboration. I also started to learn about policy change. I then did another SAMHSA project, which was more policy-focused, and centered on community organizing in nine San Francisco neighborhoods. It was a great experience in collaboration because it involved more than APIs – a lot of different communities were working together. It was also during this early period of working in the community, that I got my Masters in Public Administration, having decided that systems change was where I thought I could make a difference.

After the SAMHSA project, I decided to take a five-year “leave of absence” from full-time community work. I wanted to be closer to home and to spend time with my kids, especially because one was having some health problems. So I worked part-time for a Pleasanton counseling center, which was actually the first time that I started working specifically in mental health. After deciding to go back to work full-time, I became the executive director at Asian Pacific Psychological Services (APPS) in 2002.

 APPS was seven years old at the time I was hired, and was sustained primarily on one Medi-Cal contract and some short-term grants. We received a small foundation grant which allowed for strategic planning, so we sat down to figure out what kind of organization we wanted to be. It was clear that we wanted a bigger system to serve the needs of the community. Families were coming to APPS for more than mental health – some were coming in the door “by accident” looking for other services, and staff would work to meet those needs. Some were in crisis because they suffered from mental illness for a long time, but the family didn’t know and didn’t recognize it.

We found we wanted several things. We wanted to have early identification, prevention, and awareness of mental health issues. We also wanted to work with families and youth. So we took these core values and started a program with Richmond area Southeast Asian youth, who were deeply underserved and high-risk. So we approached mental health by working on youth development and leadership. This has been such a successful program, that our agency is now serving as the health and wellness anchor of RYSE, a new Richmond youth center serving West Contra Costa County. This is a great community project because API youth have the opportunity to interact with youth from other backgrounds, not just APIs.

 Your organization has a new name – was it difficult to make the change when you’ve been known as APPS in the community for so long?

No, changing the name from APPS to Community Health for Asian Americans was actually a lot easier than we expected. The new name fits what we do – aligns with what we do. We received a foundation grant to help us understand where our “brand” was in the community. We learned that the community viewed us more as the place where someone would say that “they help my family,” focusing a lot less on the psychological part of our name. Once we confirmed that aspect of the brand, we worked with a company called LifePortal to reach out to the community and brainstorm about the name. In coming up with a new name, you go through a process where you can come up with words that describe what you do or who you are, words that are emotive, or words that you just make up and have no meaning. So with descriptive words, we came up with Community Health for Asian Americans. We’ve been having a lot of fun with the acronym too – CHAA – because variations of it mean “tea” in several Asian languages.

 Could you describe a "typical" day at work? 

A typical day is going from meeting to meeting! It’s actually been a good change because in the beginning I had to wear a lot of hats. I had to work on fundraising, be involved in advocacy, be at different API tables – and not just the ones about mental health, all while managing the day-to-day operations. At the same time, we were trying to figure out how to create change: how to make mental health into a full system of care. Right now we have multiple systems for employment or social services, which are truly all related when you think about mental health. The challenge is how can we create links between these systems.

One of the reasons I am in a lot of meetings is because of the Mental Health Services Act, or Prop. 63. The Act has really given us a chance to reshape strategies for working with the underserved. We have been a part of Alameda and Contra Costa County stakeholder groups, and working to bring the voice of APIs to the discussions on the allocation of funds and the types of services the community needs. There’s also a strong consumer-driven direction under the Act, which is great, but a challenge for the API community because it’s still difficult to get API consumers to talk specifically about mental health. 

I also recently became the president of the Racial and Ethnic Mental Health Disparities Coalition (REMHDCO), which is a new coalition to end disparities in California. The group runs out of the office of Rusty Selix, who was one of the co-authors of Prop.63. So we have been doing a lot of work around those issues.

We’re also still working on building organizational infrastructure. When more funding comes in and you grow, you have to figure out how to manage and sustain that growth. I am grateful for the excellent executive team we’ve been able to build. We share a lot in decision-making, and they’ve made it a lot easier for me.

What do you think the state of Asian American health and mental health will look like 10 years from now?

Mental health in the API community has changed a great deal over the years because our approach is different. Our organization has allowed the community to talk about mental health without having to say mental health or mental illness. We’ve done this by offering parental support to improve relationships with teens, and by providing our youth development programs. We offer support groups, but home visits as well. We’ve been able to build a system that is adapted to the community’s needs and their way of solving problems. 

In ten years, I think we’ll see even more change, primarily in the area of wellness/recovery movements. This includes concepts and principles that were in our strategic plan and that are in Prop. 63. We’ll see a broader system of care that embraces wellness and empowerment, and is client-driven. This will include natural sources of support, and demonstrating that people can get well and recover. Along these lines, I think Asian American health organizations will also become broader, less focused on one particular area, as we make the links and move toward this wellness system.

I think we’ll also see a lot of change happen through technology. The increased use and availability of technology allows for a much broader reach. There is more opportunity for online counseling, for taking classes online that appeals to our community. We are also creating our own bigger virtual world through API Health Source, which we see as a portal for family services.

What do you love about Oakland/the Bay Area and what is your favorite food?

I love the diversity in the Bay Are. Where else can you live where the community looks like the world? The location is so great – we have the water and we have Yosemite, my favorite place to visit. I love to go out and eat and try new places, and my favorite is spicy food – anything spicy like Thai or Indian. I like to cook and try new recipes so I am a fan of the Food Network. I think baking is an art, and someday I hope to take culinary classes and learn how to bake well!

What advice would you like to give young Asian Americans?

I think about the whole workforce issue that is happening in mental health – where we need more professionals working in the field. But it’s especially important in our immigrant communities. It’s the whole notion of “if you build it, they will come.” Our organization could not reach the Cambodian community until we were able to hire a Cambodian staff person. Then we had a huge caseload! If there are no professionals, then we can’t reach the community. So I would really encourage young APIs to look at their options and just give it some thought. Most people only think about the high-profile health careers like being a doctor, but there are so many options. We are trying to build the pipeline into the health care field, and we need more people from the community working in the community.

So I would tell them to follow their passion, but to remember where they came from and try to find an opportunity to make a difference.

For more information about Community Health for Asian Americans, visit their website at www.chaaweb.org. Also, the organization is hosting a CHAA Tea Party on March 19, 5-7 pm, at Numi Tea Garden in Oakland to celebrate their new name. Please call 510-835-2777 for more information.