Depression among the elderly

Healing the Spirit: Treatment of Depression Among the Asian Elderly

Elderly Asian women have the highest suicide rate of any racial or ethnic sub-group in the United States. A major cause of this is depression. In response, the Asian Pacific Fund produced Healing the Spirit, a health education film that discusses the symptoms of depression and how to get help. Produced in eight Asian languages plus English, the film is distributed free.

Featuring a personal interview with writer Amy Tan and produced in partnership with the Stanford Geriatric Education Center and AARP, the film includes interviews with three seniors, their family members and social workers.

The film was distributed to public libraries and social service agencies in all the major metropolitan areas, including the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York City.

The film is available in English and eight Asian languages (Cantonese, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog Vietnamese) and continues to be available free in VHS and DVD format. Click here for more information.

Following the initial distribution of Healing the Spirit, the film was used in training seminars by the Stanford Geriatric Education Center, and was distributed to regional offices of AARP and the U. S. Area Offices on Aging. It has been requested for use in social work schools, nursing homes, and on national health education websites. Healing the Spirit is also being used for public education projects of our colleague organizations, the Asian American Federation (serving metropolitan New York City) and Hamilton Madison House (of New York City). That project is supported by the New York State Department of Mental Health.

By invitation from the Public Health Foundation, Healing the Spirit has been listed as a resource on the TrainingFinder Real-time Affiliate Integrated Network, the learning resource for national and state public health agencies, academic partners, and others.

Please download and complete a DVD request form and mail or email it to:

Asian Pacific Fund
225 Bush Street, Suite 590
San Francisco, CA 94104
info@asianpacificfund.org