December 2025 Director's Corner: The Importance of Voices, Experiences, and Leadership of AANHPI People with Lived Experience

As many of you know, NAAPIMHA has a network of people with lived experience with mental health challenges called the National Asian American Pacific Islander Empowerment Network or NAAPIEN.

In 2023, NAAPIMHA held a summit that focused on youth and people with lived experience called Redefining Mental Health: Centering Voices of AANHPI Youth and People with Lived Experience. At that summit, we had a breakout session for people with lived experience to share and think about what recommendations we might have to improve our experiences in the mental health system. I still get chills when I think about how I felt in that room with over 30 folks who identify as having mental health challenges or are the caregivers of someone who does. As a person who is an educator and an activist in mental health and suicide prevention spaces, most of the time I am in rooms where I am a minority – in rooms where I have to fight the stereotypes and try to claim a space for AANHPI experiences, voices, and leadership. However, in that room, I had to do none of that. The conversation was rich and the experiences shared poignant.

In the virtual NAAPIEN space, we try to bring that zeitgeist to the programming and events we host. We do programming from the NAAPIEN space to share information and connect as a community. NAAPIEN is also a space where we cultivate new AANHPI leadership in lived experience spaces. Our voices and experiences need to be heard to inform the mental health and suicide prevention fields.

AANHPI communities are often left out of mental health research and policy making, perhaps because we are seen as being successful and therefore not having mental health challenges. Although this is untrue and tends to reflect the stereotypes of East Asian populations who are considered the “model minority,” these misconceptions still drive the lack of funding and access to culturally relevant services. In addition, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations are even more neglected when it comes to research and funding. Who better to speak out than those of us who have first-hand experiences with the mental health system?

As we look toward 2026, I look forward to building the NAAPIEN network to be stronger and more vocal as an advocate for our needs as AANHPIs with lived experience. If you identify as a person with lived experience, either as having mental health challenges yourself, as a suicide loss survivor, or as a caregiver of someone with mental health issues, I invite you to join our network here . I hope to meet more of you in 2026 and wish everyone a Happy New Year.

-Dr. Pata Suyemoto