About Us

Advocacy Highlights

In the 1990s, the Coalition engaged in various lobbying efforts to urge the New York state government to meet the mental health care needs of monolingual Asian immigrants, leading to passage of legislations that support the establishment of Asian inpatient units at City and State Hospitals – Bellevue, Elmhurst, South Beach and Creedmore Psychiatric Center.

In the 2000s, the Coalition testified at City and State hearings on the need for culturally competent mental health care and suicide prevention in the Asian community.

In recent years, the Coalition joined other community agencies to support Asian immigrants who are fearful of deportation and have become targets of hate crimes due to the anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration.  Workshops and resources were organized to help providers to reach out to this vulnerable population.

Our Mission

The New York Coalition for Asian Mental Health (NYCAAMH) strives to improve the quality of mental health care services in Asian American communities throughout the New York metropolitan area. Our mission is to address the unmet mental health care needs and service disparities of the Asian American population through advocacy, community service, professional development and collaboration with government and local service providers.

Board Officers

  • Anna Liu

    LMSW, Vice President – Anna has been volunteering at the Coalition since 2016. She obtained her Social Work degree from Columbia University with a concentration on social enterprise administration and currently works in healthcare.

  • Kenneth Lam

    MDiv. – Treasurer – Kenneth’s main focus and emphasis in his career are coalition building and community empowerment. Kenneth has experience in working and volunteering with community organizations, faith-based community organizations and City Government. Presently, he is a board member of Dorcas Ministries in Brooklyn and advisor for Asian Health and Social Service Council (AHSSC).

Interim Executive Committee

Deena Patel

LCSW (she/her), is a first generation South Asian (Indian) American. She grew up in Georgia and all over the East Coast. As a child, she spent time in India and as a teenager experienced the violent Gujarat riots of 2002, which informed her current practices as an anti-oppressive/decolonizing trauma therapist. Deena is a doctoral student and field instructor at NYU Silver School of Social Work with an academic focus on adversity and racial trauma.  During her tenure with the largest community-based mental health nonprofit in Queens, she spearheaded healthcare reform, developed outreach programs, and extended operations into the Bronx. Her professional background includes positions as program supervisor, director of case management, and psychotherapist. She has served as communication director at Recovery Dharma NYC, which uses eastern philosophy and religion to approach recovery, and started a chapter in Georgia. Deena currently operates her private practice specializing in trauma, addiction, and intersectional identities. Deena is an EMDR-certified (EMDRIA) and Flash technique-certified practitioner. She brings a deeply personal perspective to her work and is particularly passionate about promoting cultural competence and liberation frameworks. 

Vera Hanya Shao

LMHC (she/her) - Secretary - joined the coalition in 2020. She is originally from mainland China. Currently, she practices and supervises at a community-facing private practice. Cultural bereavement, immigration, and other Asian/Asian American identity experiences are significant aspects of her clinical work. Vera has also been a member of the Alumni Council at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Daniel Tanh

Yuna Youn

LCSW, joined the Coalition in 2013. He is the son of parents who escaped the Cambodian genocide and speaks English and Teochew Chinese. He works at the Jewish Board as a leader and clinician in OnTrackNY, a first-episode psychosis program, and as an organizer within COR, the agency’s driving force for confronting structural racism. While utilizing an ever-evolving anti-oppressive framework, he strives to promote social justice while teaching and consulting, facilitating racial affinity groups, and providing therapy.

LCSW, is a lifelong New Yorker, a daughter of Korean immigrants, and the Assistant Clinic Director at Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, an Article 31 clinic dedicated to linguistically and culturally sensitive care. Her work with people of color is greatly inspired by years of working with the incarcerated, which gives her a unique perspective on therapeutic interactions in context of broader systemic issues. Her work is informed and inspired by the many ways individuals in oppressive systems and in her private practice demonstrate their resilience.

LMSW (she/her/quýt), is a queer, cis-gender woman and part of the Vietnamese Refugee diaspora. She was born in the Philippines Refugee Camp and raised in Southern California's Little Saigon. Hân Nguyễn is a lifelong anti-racist organizer, educator, and social worker based in New York City. She is an Antiracist Organizer and Trainer with the People's Institute For Survival and Beyond, collaborating with fellow leaders to Undo Racism in the Northeast Region. Hân is an educator at John Jay CUNY, where she teaches with an anti-oppressive lens to future human service and social work providers. She has been part of the coalition since 2016. She received her B.A. from UCLA and MSW from NYU Silver School of Social Work.

Hân Nguyễn

Our History

Under the leadership of Dr. James Chou and a group of dedicated volunteer mental health providers, the NY Coalition for Asian American Mental Health, Inc. received its Certificate of Incorporation under Section 402, 503© of the New York State Not-For-Profit Corporate Laws in 1990.

For almost three decades, monthly membership meetings were held at different agency sites in NYC to promote networking, collaboration, and sharing of community resources. Conferences on topics relevant to the Asian American mental health community were held to raise awareness of emerging issues and enhance culturally relevant knowledge and skills among providers.  As of 2018, a bimonthly newsletter with agency updates and community resources are sent to over 200 providers and members. In addition, a member-only social media venue has been established for queries and sharing of resources.

In 2010, the Young Professional and Mentoring Group was organized to meet on a regular basis to promote professional development and support for Asian mental health students and new graduates. In 2017, the group was renamed the Professional Development Group to include professionals of all levels to meet the increased interests in professional identity and culturally relevant skills in working in the Asian community. Each fall through spring, presenters with expertise on working with Asian Americans are invited to present their work at the monthly meetings held at The Silver School of Social Work at NYU.  A peer supervision group led by volunteer facilitators has also been formed to meet at the end of the monthly meetings.

Contact Us

Please be advised that the Coalition is staffed by volunteers.  Although we can’t always reply right away, we’ll do our best to reply in a timely manner.

If your inquiry pertains to an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.