CHAA History & Mission

Community Health for Asian Americans (CHAA) is a leading community-driven provider of behavioral health, youth development, and family support services for the historically underserved Asian and Pacific Islander communities of the Bay Area. Strengthened by a diverse professional staff with roots in the API community, CHAA understands families from various API cultures, and offers its services on a personal level, focusing on treatment in and beyond the clinical environment. CHAA provides services to local schools, youth, and families. 

CHAA was founded in March 1996 as Asian Pacific Psychological Services by four individuals in the mental health field who were concerned about the inadequacy of mental health resources for the API communities living in the East Bay, and who recognized the need to create programs that would not only close the huge gap in the delivery of care system through advocacy, but also provide a viable alternative in training and employment opportunities for young API mental health professionals.  The timing of the inception of a second Asian mental health organization in Oakland (ACMHS was the first) was made possible because of the creation of funding for children's mental health services (EPSDT) resulting from a lawsuit in California which paved the way for many organizations such as APPS to secure stable funding for mental health services for children on full-scope Medi-Cal. 

Since 1996, CHAA has been greatly valued for its commitment to, and steady focus on, promoting mental health as a mission, a point that is well understood by the agency’s board, staff and external stakeholders. 

What is a wellness model of behavioral health care?

Traditional public health interventions and social services have tended to focus on needs-oriented solutions.  Unfortunately, one outcome of such perspectives in practice is that they encourage people in the community to become consumers of services with no incentive to be agents in their own wellness (McKnight and Kretzmann, 1997).  Traditional models construe them as passive consumers of services they were not involved in creating.

 A wellness model of behavioral health care is based on several core assumptions, which include the following:

•  wellness is not only about the individual, but also about their family lives and the communities in which they live, work and learn;
•  wellness is a partnership which requires respect, trust and shared responsibility;
• wellness should be approached by paying attention to what people do right already, not only on fixing what is broken;
• individuals and communities have different needs and strengths, such that a continuum of care is necessary, from prevention, to intervention, to treatment, and are at different stages of readiness for services.

Wellness fosters a sense of personal responsibility, thus minimizing promotion of co-dependent behaviors between service providers and clients.  Wellness does not consider clients as passive consumers of programs and services, but engages clients as actively involved in shaping them to better address the realities of their daily lives.  Wellness recognizes that clients face unique challenges, and as members of communities possess distinct cultures, economic circumstances and histories. Wellness holistically acknowledges, honors and foregrounds these realities as significantly impacting health, and actively solicits the participation of clients, their families and their communities in designing and implementing programs and services that best address the special challenges they face. Wellness sees health as a partnership requiring mutual respect, trust and shared responsibility between the many stakeholders in the community, most importantly between those served and local service providers.

Why prevention?

Wellness focuses on prevention, in addition to intervention and treatment. A National Mental Health Association report, entitled The Prevention of Mental-Emotional Disabilities (1986), defines prevention as “intervening in a deliberate and positive way to counteract harmful circumstances before they cause disorder or disability”.  More traditional perspectives seek only to reduce risk factors and thus overlook the possibilities of building on areas of strength possessed by individuals, families and communities. An alternative to focusing on needs and deficits is interventions based on capacities, skills, and assets.  For example, prevention research has focused on the family’s role in nurturing protective factors to help families encourage pro-social behaviors in children (Preventing Substance Abuse Among Children and Adolescent: Family-Centered Approaches, 1998).  Prevention engages individuals, families and communities positively in building and strengthening protective factors at each of these levels, facilitating investment in capacities, skills, assets and strengths, ultimately fostering healthier individuals, families and communities. Therefore, a wellness model includes a continuum of care that offers a full range of prevention, intervention, and treatment approaches to address the diverse needs of our API population.

Why youth development?

Youth development is a process which prepares young people to meet the challenges of adolescence and adulthood through a coordinated, progressive series of activities and experiences which help them to become socially, morally, emotionally, physically, and cognitively competent. Positive youth development addresses the broader developmental needs of youth, in contrast to deficit-based models which focus solely on youth problems. CHAA provides youth development as part of its continuum of programs and services, believing that young people need opportunities to develop skills, leadership qualities, and self confidence while learning about their cultures, communities and self-identities. CHAA is committed to developing a generation of young people who are creative, have important critical skills that make them more likely to thrive, and who are dedicated to serving and improving their communities. 

What does this mean for the populations we serve?

CHAA's clients come from diverse backgrounds. Many, because of their cultural backgrounds, do not have a concept of mental health as distinct from overall health and well-being. Many suffer from mental-emotional or behavioral disabilities but do not know it, and are not able to get the help that they need in the languages that they speak. Many are not able to talk about mental health, domestic violence, or substance abuse in their families or communities due to stigma and shame. This is particularly true of the newer Laotian community that includes the Lao, Khmu, and Mien Asian groups, the Cambodian survivors of the mahantharai genocide of the Khmer Rouge era, Pacific Islanders and other new API refugee and immigrant communities. The wellness model of behavioral health care responds better to the different levels of readiness within the API communities. Services provided under a wellness model are organized to reduce the incidence of particular stressful life events whenever possible or facilitate mastery once they occur. Wellness, therefore, places more emphasis on preventive intervention programs that move from symptoms and underlying issues toward a holistic understanding of problems in context. By addressing behavioral health in terms of strengthening family relationships, parenting skills, etc., CHAA is able to frame behavioral health in a more sensitive, relevant and acceptable way for the individuals and communities we serve.

What does this mean for CHAA?

The wellness model of behavioral health care allows CHAA to approach the issues faced by our clients in a more holistic way. It integrates all health and human service systems (e.g. health, mental health, social, education, employment, etc.), considers the spiritual, emotional, and economic well-being of our clients, and addresses the full continuum of care.  The wellness model builds on the strengths and assets of an individual, their families and communities, and fosters a sense of community through increased utilization of group models for intervention, and by addressing more of the social issues of our clients and dealing with their environment. Finally, it more closely matches the level of case management that API clients need in proportion to counseling services.

CHAA believes that no one should be denied access to behavioral health care because they can’t afford it, because of their legal status, or because they can’t communicate with a professional who can help. We also believe that behavioral health care can be offered in a respectful, inclusive, and egalitarian manner that promotes the positive problem-solving approach to improving the lives of those affected.  Our philosophy is that persons with a behavioral health issue obtain the life skills to take care of themselves in the community, and develop a sense of self that will help them lead healthy lives and build social, work, and rehabilitation relationships.