By Anjali Huynh Globe Correspondent,Updated July 29, 2022, 4:51 p.m.

Chien-Chi Huang has fought to connect local Asian American communities with mental health resources for years. She has organized mental health forums, held social hours designed to promote self-care, and trained to be a mental health peer advocate.
But Huang found that COVID-19, with its crushing isolation and the wave of anti-Asian violence that followed, has sparked a broader conversation about mental health issues, as has a growing number of high-profile Asian Americans speaking out about their own struggles during the pandemic and beyond.
“When the mental health movement started, it usually wouldn’t get a lot of attention except from white people,” said Huang, founder and director of the Boston-based nonprofit Asian Women for Health, which will host its annual Asian American Mental Health Forum Saturday. But “when you see celebrities that look like you also have these kinds of problems, it normalizes the actions to seek help.”
Continue to read here.

When Chien-Chi Huang turned 40, she immediately scheduled a mammogram. Her aunt had died from breast cancer at 60 and she wanted to be proactive about screening. “The first mammogram didn’t see anything,” Huang said. “Then two months later, I found a lump under my armpit. By the time I found the lump, the cancer had already spread through the lymph nodes.” Huang’s experience with breast cancer led her to launch the Asian Breast Cancer Project and Asian Women for Health. The volunteer-run groups advocate for Asian women, who have the lowest rates of screening. 

​Continue to read by clicking here

Asian Women for Health (AWFH) hosted its sixth CelebrAsians benefit fashion show at Boston Medical Center Oct. 13. More than 100 individuals attended, enjoying food and learning from Asian survivors of cancer and trauma. The event highlighted the importance of health for Asian American women, fighting for what’s best for themselves.

Suzuko Hori, 41, played her trombone for the third time. Diagnosed in 2013 with breast cancer, Hori deferred her enrollment to Berklee College of Music. The Tokyo-born woman received words of admiration from a number of attendees for her performance and confidence.

Continue to read by clicking here