Wish Book: HealthRIGHT 360’s Asian American Recovery Services helps tackle stigma over mental health, substance use
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Perla Equihua, a 19-year-old Chicana woman, brims with pride as she recounts the last six years — a journey from frequent blackouts as a young teen caused by a drug cocktail of pills and alcohol to learning how to stop and take a breath and cope without substances.
Her longtime care coordinator, Cristina Aldama, sits next to her in one of HealthRIGHT 360‘s East San Jose offices, intently listening. The pair have grown close over the years, evidenced by quick glances of reassurance and warm smiles that turn into big grins. Equihua said her mother doesn’t know much of what she’s been through in the last half decade, but Aldama does.
“My confidence? It’s crazy now,” Equihua said, flashing her 1,000-watt smile once again.
Since age 13, Equihua has been in the nonprofit’s Asian American Recovery Services program, which provides substance use and mental health treatment to Asian and Pacific Islanders, as well as other ethnically diverse communities in the Bay Area.
Its helped her deal with her anger and sadness, taught her to be aware of her triggers and set boundaries. She’s now two years sober from taking pills.
“It’s that safe spot,” Equihua said of the program. “You’re able to talk to someone, you’re able to just not keep it bottled up because once you keep stuff bottled up that’s what makes you want to go and smoke, get validation and just do certain things that you know are not good.”
Asian American Recovery Services was founded in 1985 and has since grown to be the largest program of its kind in the nation. Its youth program also has a more than two-decade long partnership with East Side Union High School District, providing treatment in five of its high schools. The agency is seeking $50,000 in Wish Book donations to help support their services.
Roughly half of AARS’ care coordinators, like Aldama, are alumni of the program, as well, drawing on their own experiences to help youth and adults — many of whom have been referred by social workers or the criminal justice system.
“It was hard trying to figure out what it meant being an addict and how to get sober,” Aldama, who is Laos, said of her teenage self. “I think Asian Americans have a lot of stigma around drug addiction and I feel like if I came into this field and give back to my culture it will help the elderly Asians understand a little bit more about addiction.”
Razelle Buenavista, the managing director of the program, said they often have to work harder to reach their Asian clients.
“There’s a lot of outreach and a lot of education that we have to provide,” she said. “Whereas other organizations that are seeing the general population, they have referrals coming in and out.”
Numerous studies have shown that people of Asian descent are the least likely to seek help for mental health or substance abuse issues compared to other racial groups in the United States.
Michelle Cruz, a Filipino American AARS care coordinator who struggled with substance abuse and mental health issues growing, said her parents wanted her to talk to a priest and threatened to send her back to the Philippines.
“We don’t talk about it amongst family because you want to save face so pretty much you’re holding everything in and that was my way of coping, using substances,” she said. “It did a lot to my mental health and I don’t want anyone else out there to hold it in and feel like there’s nobody there to listen, because there are, there’s people.”
Trung Tong, another care coordinator who went through the program after a court referral, said the field of psychology has largely been tailored toward white patients, which makes programs like AARS critical — especially in Santa Clara County where the population is 41.4 percent Asian, according to 2022 U.S. Census data.
“It takes agencies like AARS to do the work and to learn through our work and to contribute to the field as a whole,” he said. “Then we can begin to tailor different types of services to different populations and grabbing some culture and spirituality aspects into making it actually work.”
THE WISH BOOK SERIES
Wish Book is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operated by The Mercury News. Since 1983, Wish Book has been producing series of stories during the holiday season that highlight the wishes of those in need and invite readers to help fulfill them.
WISH
Donations will help Asian American Recovery Services, a program of HealthRIGHT 360, provide culturally competent mental health and substance use disorder treatment to youth and adults in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Alameda Counties and support its annual Sister to Sister Youth Leadership Conference. Goal: $50,000
HOW TO GIVE
Donate at wishbook.mercurynews.com/donate or mail in this form.
ONLINE EXTRA
Read other Wish Book stories, view photos and video at wishbook.mercurynews.com.
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