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August 15, 2007University of California, Davis to Launch Asian American Center on Disparities Research |
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From University of California: The grant, from the National Institute of Mental Health, will establish the Asian American Center on Disparities Research. Headquartered at UC Davis, the new center will support and coordinate the efforts of a network of researchers who study Asian-American mental health issues. "Contrary to the 'model minority' myth, Asian Americans have serious needs for mental health care that have been inadequately addressed," said UC Davis psychology professor Nolan Zane, director and principal investigator of the new center. "Not only are their rates of mental illness much higher than previously believed, but Asian Americans who enter into the mental health system tend to be more severely disturbed than other ethnic groups. In addition, there is compelling evidence that mental health services are inadequate for many Asian American clients, along with serious doubt as to whether treatments that have been validated with predominantly white patient populations are actually effective for Asian Americans. The center's research will address these issues that continue to challenge the mental health field." The center will partner with the National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association, whose members include most of the mental health and health agencies nationwide that specialize in serving Asian American communities. A recent analysis of 379 National Institute of Mental Health-funded psychiatric clinical trial studies published between 1995 and 2004 found that fewer than half included information on patients' ethnicity. Another disorder, known in Korean as hwa-byung, may be three times more common in Korean Americans than in Koreans living in Korea.
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