APA Foundation Recognizes Leaders in Minority Mental Health

The 2016 APA Foundation Awards for Advancing Minority Mental Health were announced at the annual benefit of the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, held in conjunction with APA’s 2016 Annual Meeting in Atlanta in May.

David Hathcox

The awards, created in 2003, recognize psychiatrists, other health professionals, and organizations that have undertaken innovative efforts to raise awareness of mental illness in underserved minority communities, increase access to care, overcome cultural barriers to care, and improve the quality of care for underserved minorities, particularly those in the public health system or with severe mental illness.

Here are brief descriptions of this year’s winners:

• Kenneth Fung, M.D., of Toronto is a co-founder of the Asian Initiative in Mental Health Program (AIM) at the Toronto Western Hospital. This program serves the local, underserved Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking communities and is a training ground for medical students and residents interested in cross-cultural psychiatry. In addition to his efforts to increase culturally competent mental health care through AIM, Fung provides psychiatric consultation and training to minority mental health care service organizations. Also, he has engaged with local media to promote mental health and advocate for stigma reduction in local minority populations and has co-led numerous research studies.

• Nubia Lluberes-Rincon, M.D., of Freedom, Pa., is pursuing a fellowship in forensic psychiatry to allow her to help close the gap between psychiatric services and the correctional system in the United States. Lluberes-Rincon, a former APA Diversity Leadership Fellow, has spent time providing mental health education to the Hispanic community in Texas and creating a documentary on bipolar disorder. In West Virginia, where African Americans, LGBT, and other minority groups are in need of additional support, she re-established electroconvulsive therapy at a hospital serving these populations and provided community education to fight stigma surrounding mental illness.

• Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program of Lifeline Connections of Vancouver, Wash., provides high-quality treatment and support for people who are deaf and have a substance use disorder, allowing equal access to treatment in American Sign Language (ASL), the clients’ first language. This dynamic eliminates complications and barriers that a third-party interpreter may introduce to the therapeutic relationship and therefore improves treatment outcomes. The program offers both individual and group counseling and hosts an alumni program to help clients live sober lives. The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program has clients who have been sober and in recovery for many years.

• Adelante of Suffolk County Inc. in Central Islip, N.Y., serves local low-income families, many of whom are Hispanic. In order to address the mental health of its clients, Adelante runs a Supported Housing and Behavioral Program in which all staff are bilingual (English-Spanish) and able to provide care in the clients’ first (and potentially only) language. Adelante collaborates with Alcoholics Anonymous and a local clinical facility offering treatment for adults with serious mental illness. Additionally, the Supported Housing and Behavioral Program offers pre-vocational services to prepare their clients for employment and training in life skills to provide a holistic approach to the overall well-being of the individual. ■