U. Center for Asian Health Promotion and Equity publishes health care policy briefs

The Rutgers-New York University (NYU) Center for Asian Health Promotion and Equity (CAHPE) recently published two policy briefs highlighting the mental health crisis among Asian Americans and advocating for culture-focused health care strategies.

The briefs are titled "Spotlight on Health Equity: Addressing the Mental Health of Asian Americans Across the Lifespan" and "Spotlight on Health Equity: The Need for Culturally Tailored Approaches for Asian American Communities."

The center is driven by a collaboration between professors from Rutgers—New Brunswick, NYU and the City University of New York (CUNY), said Soko Setoguchi, a professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) and Rutgers School of Public Health. Setoguchi is also the leader of the CAHPE. 

"(The center's) general work really focuses on conducting research projects," she said. "I think what we are doing (with) the policy briefs goes very well … I think this is really the core work for the community engagement core."

Setoguchi said that while data typically fails to represent the diversity within the Asian American community, the policy briefs bring attention to the health issues within various Asian populations.

Sunanda Gaur, a professor of pediatrics at RWJMS, Keith Chan, an associate professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at CUNY's Hunter College and Emerson Ea, chair of the Department of Nursing at the School of Professional Studies at CUNY's New York City College of Technology, are co-leads of the community engagement core.

The community engagement core is a part of the center that aims to foster the relationship between the center and the communities it serves. It includes a community advisory board of 12 health and social services organizations. 

"(The community advisory board) met monthly, and we talked about what (local Asian communities) were seeing on the ground from their perspective to help us understand what the issues are that they're dealing with," Gaur said. 

Chan said speaking with community members led them to compile the information into policy briefs and helped them decide which topics to focus on.

Additionally, he said sharing their experiences contextualizes the issues for readers and leaves a lasting impression on policymakers.

"We wanted to … find a way to amplify the voices of the community members," Chan said. "The numbers get people's attention, but the stories make people remember."

Ea said translating their findings into the form of a policy brief effectively reaches legislators.

He said that beyond working closely with the community, the community advisory board members are "advocates and … policy influencers."

The center's recommendations to policymakers include increased funding for mental health services in Asian American communities, training for medical professionals serving Asian Americans and forming relationships between health care organizations and the community.

Chan said that challenges in working with the community advisory board members included determining the most important focuses, given the intersectional nature of the issues facing the Asian American community. Another challenge was coordinating meeting times with the remainder of the project's contributors, Ea said.

"When folks are very focused and very passionate on the things that they want to express and they want to discuss, they'll find time, and that's what happened," he said.

Setoguchi said community voices remain critical in deciding what the center will focus on in the future. Climate change and its implications on health is a topic of potential interest, she said.

Aparna Kalbag, a research scientist at the center, said patients with conditions such as diabetes and their ability to care for themselves could be another area to explore in policy briefs.

"We know that (community) voices … could reach all the way up to legislation to hopefully consider this and make changes," Ea said.