The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families wants more mental health supports for Asian American and Pacific Islander youth. WAMC's Sajina Shrestha spoke with its Co-Executive Director, Anita Gundanna, about the importance and the barriers to mental health care for AAPI youth in New York.
Sajina Shrestha: What are the challenges that AAPI youth face, and what are some ways that the state can come in and provide better support for them?
Anita Gundanna: So, what we do know is that our youth really do want spaces in community to allow them to talk about their feelings spaces that can help them have conversations around their mental health and mental health challenges. They want to be acknowledged around their identity and actually work, you know, in community with young people facing similar situations, they want to be supported in their schools with appropriate counseling. I think the problem is that a lot of our community is shrouded by this myth of the model minority that we don't struggle and young people are also affected by that negatively. They’re not acknowledged, they don't feel safe in sharing and or they have space to share their challenges. And so, a lot of it is that young people in our AAPI communities are isolated in their struggle.
Sajina Shrestha: I definitely see that. When I was a teenager as an Asian American, I often felt like I could not ask for help, even with the teachers. If I was struggling with something, because of this myth that well, ‘I'm an Asian American student. I don't struggle. I get the work done.’ So, it's interesting that even after all these years, you know I went to high school in 2015, now it's 2026 almost 11 years later. It's interesting to note that even now Asian American youth and Asian, Asian American Pacific Islander youth feel isolated and like they cannot reach out. So, what's at stake here?
Anita Gundanna: Well, I mean, the statistics show that there are lives at stake. Our young people really need to be heard and understood. There needs to be better data on our youth. There needs to be disaggregated data on Asian, American, Pacific, Islander young people to understand how to target and tailor responses that would be supportive of our communities. But the truth is that if there is mental health concerns and those are not addressed, then unfortunately we do see things like suicide or further mental health, you know, deterioration or mental health deterioration. That could have been addressed earlier and prevented through supportive measures and acknowledgement and real policy and supportive services that tackle problems at the places where young people are, which are at schools or in community organizations or within their community. And so that's really what we're seeing,
Sajina Shrestha: Speaking of targeting and creating systems that work, what have you seen that does work?
Anita Gundanna: Yeah, so what we see works is really work that services that stem from within communities and within trusted community-based organizations that are providing culturally responsive, language, accessible, really targeted and trusted supports to communities.
That was WAMC's Sajina Shrestha in conversation with CACF's co-executive director, Anita Gundanna, on the importance of mental health supports for AAPI Youth.