Dear Friends, Thanks for opening this email update! Merry Christmas! In this update, you can watch a video of a roundtable discussion about mental health & spirituality, register for a free mental health conference on January 12-13, and read why I’m inviting you to join me for this work of mental health ministry.
What a delight to be part of this project as Asian American Christian Collaborative presents "At the Table." I was honored to moderate this discussion with Professor Joseph Barnet, Pastor Jason Chang, and Pastor Joshua Cho. We tackle questions related to the essential roles of prayer, mindfulness, and destigmatizing mental health, promoting a comprehensive approach that integrates faith, professional help, and community support.
CAMH (and our parent organization, Catalyst Wellness Alliance) will have an exhibit booth during the 2024 Mental Health Conference on January 12-13, 2024, hosted by the Center for Asian American Christianity. This hybrid conference is both online and in-person; get more info and register at https://caac.ptsem.edu/events/2024-mental-health-conference/
Trigger Warning. The alarming news of almost 50,000 suicides in 2022 indicates that even with growing awareness and advocacy about mental health and wellness, there’s not yet a decline in reducing this leading cause of death in America.
Three barriers to mental health care are often mentioned: lack of accessibility, lack of affordability, and lack of availability. For Asian Americans, particularly, I would add a fourth barrier: lack of acceptability.
To make mental health & wellness more acceptable, we started the Erasing Shame podcast in 2018 to have honest talk for healthy living. Then in 2022, we launched Christian Asian Mental Health to advance compassion and care in collaboration with churches by developing their mental health ministries. I have gladly worked on these things voluntarily and slowly. But there’s so much more that could be done and needs to be done.
Now that CAMH is part of Catalyst Wellness Alliance, we are working to facilitate a nationwide network to connect churches, pastors, clinicians, researchers, academicians, and nonprofits to work better together for our collective mental wellness.
Here’s a sneak peek at 3 things we’re planning to do. First, we will host a monthly webinar for pastors to encourage and equip them in practical ways. Second, we will gather key leaders on a quarterly basis to build on mutually-beneficial relationships. Third, I’ll continue actively meeting up with pastors and church leaders to resource them for mental health ministry in their churches.
With over 9,000 Asian American churches, do you know how long it would take if I had one meeting every weekday with a church? It would take 36 years! I don’t have that much time left, so we have to work smarter and work together. We need partners who can share the work and partners who can support to fund the work.
This work is big and I cannot do this alone. For me to do more of this work and more effectively, I need to raise $5,000 per month. I invite you to consider and to pray with me that God will inspire a whole community of generous people to donate and give to Catalyst Wellness Alliance.
I’ll continue sharing my monthly updates about Christian Asian Mental Health here, where the focus is more personal, relational, and informal.
For announcements about programs, events, and resources related to AAPI, faith, and mental health, please subscribe to CWA News at www.catalystwa.org
Thank you for reading this update; it brings joy to my heart. Merry Christmas!
// DJ CHUANG, Executive Director of Catalyst Wellness Alliance
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