Addressing Disabilities Among AAPIs

One is five Americans suffers from a disability. For those of us working in the public health arena, we sometimes neglect to factor issues surrounding disability into our equation of overall wellness and health. Disabilities directly impact our ability to work with communities on other health issues, such as tobacco use, physical activity, and breast cancer screening. I’m glad that my friend, Jean Lin, and her colleagues with Asians and Pacific Islanders with Disabilities of California are actively providing leadership, education and advocacy related to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders with disabilities. They are sponsoring a conference in Long Beach, California on October 29 -30 that no doubt will be well worth attending.

For our part, we’ve just begun to address disability issues among local AAPIs. For instance, earlier this year, our staff member, Ms. Emma Ditsworth, conducted a training entitled “Living Well with Disabilities” at the Chinese Senior Center. This series of workshops utilizes an evidence-based curriculum that focuses on providing the information and skills to assist disabled individuals in optimizing their health and wellness. To our knowledge, Emma conducted the first ever Chinese-language version of this workshop. For more information about this workshop, feel free to contact Emma at (480) 452-5771 or at emma@apcaaz.org
(She’s currently on vacation, so make a note to contact her after she’s back in early August).

- Doug Hirano, MPH, APCA Executive Director