California Reducing Disparities Project

RAMS, Inc., as a member organization of the Asian Pacific Islander Strategic Planning Workgroup (API-SPW) for the California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP), is pleased to announce release of the draft report for public review & comment, from 04/06 to 4/26. Pacific Clinics, under the directorship of Dr. C. Rocco Cheng, served as the lead organization for the Asian & Pacific Islander Strategic Planning Workgroup, and Community Health for Asian Americans (CHAA), under the leadership of Ms. Beatrice Lee, served as the Bay Area regional lead agency.

The California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP) is a key statewide policy initiative funded by the California Department of Mental Health (DMH) as means to improve access, quality of care, and increase positive outcomes for racial, ethnic, and cultural communities. Launched in 2009, this two-year statewide Prevention and Early Intervention effort utilizes $3 million in Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) state administrative funding.

The CRDP is focused on five populations to which each will encompass its own Strategic Planning Workgroup (SPW):
•African Americans
•Asian/Pacific Islanders
•Latinos
•Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, Questioning (LGBTQ)
•Native Americans

•To view the detailed roster, please download HERE.

These Strategic Planning Workgroups (SPW) is comprised of community leaders, mental health providers, consumers and family members – all of whom work together to identify new service delivery approaches defined by multicultural communities for multicultural communities using community -defined evidence. Their goal is to develop population-specific reports (strategic plan) that will form the basis of a statewide comprehensive strategic plan to identify new approaches toward reducing disparities.

To view the CRDP Fact Sheet, please click HERE.

Funded by MHSA through the Office of Multicultural Services at the California Department of Mental Health, the API-SPW was formed to address mental health service disparities in the Asian Pacific Islander community by identifying unmet needs and collecting community-defined strategies in response to these needs. The API-SPW consisted of 55 members representing various Asian Pacific Islander communities in California, including community representatives, community organizers, community service providers, consumer advocates, and mental health service providers who have years of experience and expertise serving the API community in urban, suburban, and rural areas. In addition, the API-SPW sought inputs directly from community members through conducting twenty-three focus groups and interviews across the state.

Based on the contributions from the 55 members and 198 focus group participants, the API-SPW proceeded to define core competencies and selection criteria for promising programs relevant to the API community, making this report a true grass-root effort to address mental health service disparities from a community perspective. The spirit of such an effort is reflected in the API report, as it closely documents the information and feedbacks gathered from the API community in the last two years.

About API-SPW:
For information, please download HERE for the API Strategic Planning Workgroup organizational structure.

For more information on the API-SPW, click on the following links for the CRDP and the API strategy & the draft of the report. For comments, please email to crdp@pacificclinics.org by no later than April 26, 2012.