Asian Counseling Center Selected as One of Eleven Community Partnership Grantees

ATLANTA--(Business Wire)--
Asian Christian Counseling & Educational Seminar Services
(ACCESS), a non-profit counseling center serving the Greater Atlanta
Asian community, is the first Georgia agency to offer a counseling
group for depression conducted in the Chinese language. Subsidized in
large part by a grant awarded from Morehouse School of Medicine -
Center of Excellence on Health Disparities, this eight-week counseling
group provides a much needed program for the underserved Asian Pacific
Islander (API) population in the Atlanta area. The program is designed
to educate group members on depression and teach coping skills to help
alleviate the depressive symptoms.

With a population of over 200,000 (2004 U.S. census estimates),
Atlanta's API population more than doubled from 1990 to 2000, making
Georgia the state with the second fastest Asian American population
growth in the United States during that decade. Despite having one of
the nation's fastest-growing API populations, Atlanta lacks the
culturally-sensitive and language-appropriate mental health services
to meet the growing needs of the population. Many Asian immigrants
have limited English proficiency, and even those who speak English
fairly well still want or need to express themselves in their primary
language when it comes to counseling. Among the different Asian ethnic
groups in Atlanta, the second largest group is Chinese.

Language and cultural barriers prevent many Chinese, and other
immigrants, from being able to utilize the various mental health
services already in place. As one of only eleven grantees, ACCESS
seeks to address such needs of the underserved API population, which
fit well with the mission of the Center of Excellence on Health
Disparities and its grant objective of developing community
partnerships to help eliminate such health disparities. Since its
opening in 2004, ACCESS has provided valuable counseling and
educational services to ethnic individuals, couples, families and
children/teenagers.

About ACCESS

Asian Christian Counseling and Education Seminar Services, Inc.
(ACCESS) is a 501(C)3 non-profit counseling center located in the
Metro Atlanta area. Services at ACCESS are open to people of all
ethnicities and religions. ACCESS provides affordable
culturally-sensitive and language-appropriate professional counseling
and psychotherapy, collaborates with ministers and other community
groups, provides consultations regarding mental health issues of
Asians and Asian Americans, and promotes awareness of mental health
issues through educational means.

ACCESS
Rebekah Wang, 770-986-0800
info@asianchristiancounseling.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008