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The language of counseling is changing with Palo Alto
by Adolescent Counseling Services
In the Wednesday, August 6 edition of Palo Alto Weekly, Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI)President,Michele Lew, and Board Member, Victor Ojakian, wrote a guest opinion article entitled, “As Palo Alto changes, so should community services,” which specifically discussed “mental health issues within the rapidly growing Asian American youth population in Palo Alto.”
Through raising many valid concerns regarding certain societal misperceptions and cultural beliefs that may influence or prevent Asian Americans from seeking mental health care, the AACI brought attention to an often overlooked cause while calling upon the community to encourage “more culturally competent services for Palo Alto youth in the future.”
We at Adolescent Counseling Services (ACS), a nonprofit agency with a thirty-three year history of providing counseling and preventive education to teens and families in the Peninsula communities, have witnessed these demographic shifts first hand and have made a concerted effort to assure that our services reflect the constantly evolving community around us. In fact, in the coming school year, our On-Campus Counseling Program (OCCP), which offers its services in the five Palo Alto Unified School District and two Sequoia Union High School District secondary schools, will offer free counseling in Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Farsi and Russian. Bilingual counseling is nothing new at ACS, as we have been offering services in multiple languages for over five years.
In addition to the ongoing weekly individual and group therapy for students and families, OCCP staff provides community education, bilingual services targeted at immigrant populations, and facilitating support groups. Through the Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment (ASAT) Program, ACS also offers professional assessment and treatment services for teens and families struggling with substance abuse and addiction. In the 2008-2009 school year, ACS’ OCCP anticipates serving at least 1,100 students and their families with over 5,000 counseling sessions. Based on past demographics, 63 percent of these students are expected to be minorities and 68 percent will come from low-income households.
Here at ACS, diversity is not only taken into consideration; it is a part of our values and intrinsic in our mission as an organization. While we do not disagree with the AACI assertion that Palo Alto must “recognize that our population is changing,” we also know that our contributions to the community would not be possible without the on-going financial support that we have received from the City of Palo Alto. In addition to their donations to ACS, the City of Palo Alto provides resources for several other culturally competent organizations in the area, including the Momentum for Mental Health and the Community Health Awareness Council. We believe that in order to engender sustained progress, it is essential to advocate improvement without overlooking the efforts and contributions that are being made.
In our on-going effort to expand our services, ACS will launch the Adolescent Counseling Program (ACP) on September 8, 2008. The ACP will begin as a pilot-program, offering affordable general counseling to teens and their families in the community at large who may not be eligible to receive treatment from the OCCP. Furthermore, in order to meet the needs of Palo Alto’s changing demographics, the ACP will offer therapy from two mandarin-speaking counselors. ACS applauds the invaluable work that is being done by the AACI and the many other organizations in this area devoted to providing all of Palo Alto’s youth with the care that they deserve, regardless of income or minority status. Adapting to the changing needs of Palo Alto’s increasingly diverse population requires community support on many levels, including nonprofit, government, corporate, and individual. We firmly believe that with hard work and collaboration, Palo Alto and its surrounding communities can continue to monitor, adapt, and improve its services for all of its residents, with no exceptions.
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