Training Tuesday, April 20, 12:30-2:30 p.m. (2.0 CEs)

Anti-Racism & Caring For Asian American & Pacific Islander Older Adults

Kat Alvarado, MA Ed., NICOS Chinese Health Coalition and

Susana Fong, LCSW, Care Management Education, Alameda Health System

For More Information and Registration: https://ioanicos.eventbrite.com

Institute on Aging, in partnership with NICOS Chinese Health Coalition, welcomes you to a 2-hour, cultural-humility training.  Over and over in the news, we see growing racism and hate crimes against the Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) populations. One PBS study cites that attacks against the AAPI community has increased by 150% since 2020. And many of those under attack are AAPI older adults, some quite vulnerable.  “No one in America should fear violence because of who they are, what they look like or what part of the world they or their families came from,” said U.S. Acting Deputy Attorney General John Carlin, during a March 5th U.S. Department of Justice listening meeting. “The Department of Justice and our component agencies are committed to bringing all of our tools to bear in supporting AAPI communities as we address the horrific rise in hate and bias incidents occurring across the country.”  Within this AAPI-specific training, we will explore historical racism in addition to current trends, cases, data, and community outreach efforts.

Objectives:

• Present at least three statistics that illustrate the growing trend of racism and racist attacks against the AAPI community
• Compare at least two ways in which historical AAPI racism is related to current AAPI racism
• Identify at least two ways in which social media has increased knowledge about AAPI racism and associated attacks
• Explain at least two reasons that AAPI attacks and racist slurs/campaigns are often underreported
• Recognize at least three public health or community-awareness resources which are serving AAPI older adults
• Outline a plan for helping AAPI older adults who are feeling fearful and/or increasingly vulnerable

Instructors:

Kat Alvarado, MA Ed., is the CLAS ACT Project Coordinator at NICOS Chinese Health Coalition. Since joining NICOS in October 2018, she has facilitated workshops to hundreds of people, on topics related to cultural humility, implicit bias, and Asian American and Pacific Islander (API) health and wellbeing. Kat completed her graduate program in May 2020. Her research specializes on issues of race, globalization, equity, and labor in the Philippines.

Susana Fong, LCSW, works within Care Management Education, Alameda Health System. Susana is s a graduate of the UCB MSW program in the concentration of direct practice in Aging Services. For 19 years post-graduation, she was employed by On Lok Senior Health Services in San Francisco, initially as a case manager with eventual promotion as a Program Manager to serve primarily Chinese-speaking older adult clients. Susana was hired on as a Protective Services Worker, then a supervisor with SF Adult Protective Services for five years. She was then recruited by Asian Health Services in Oakland to be their Integrated Behavioral Health Services Manager to develop the Integrated Behavioral Health Program. After three years of services there, the opportunity arose for her to be the Field Consultant for Aging and Health Concentration at UCB School of Social Welfare MSW Program. Along with her field education responsibilities, she taught Direct Practice in Aging and Health and Integrated Behavioral Health courses. She also provided support for the API Caucus as the faculty liaison. Susana managed the UCB/Hong Kong Summer Exchange program where eligible MSW students from Hong Kong Polytechnic University and UCB trade field placement experience for 10 weeks during the summer. During her time at UCB, she maintained her practice skills by sustaining a per diem medical social worker at Highland Hospital in Oakland covering inpatient and emergency department services. After four years of service at UCB, she transitioned full time to be the Clinical Social Worker supporting Care Management Education department at Alameda Health System based at Highland Hospital conducting ongoing education, new staff orientation to inpatient medical social work staff; providing clinical consultation to various colleagues within the system, developing processes and initiatives to support program development, and hosting the MSW internship program. On a personal note: Susana is a 1.5 generation immigrant from Hong Kong. She is tri-lingual in Cantonese, Mandarin and Toishanese.