Sponsors (8)
The bill could improve mental-health access, suicide prevention, and culturally tailored services for AANHPI communities but will require funding, workforce investment, and strong privacy safeguards to avoid costs, capacity shortfalls, and disclosure risks.
AANHPI individuals (including families) will receive better-targeted mental-health services because the bill pushes for disaggregated data, provider training, and culturally/linguistically appropriate care.
AANHPI youth ages 10–24 are more likely to benefit from targeted suicide-prevention efforts because the bill highlights suicide as a leading cause of death in this group.
AANHPI communities and the general public may experience reduced stigma and higher mental-health literacy, encouraging more people to seek care and lowering untreated mental-health prevalence.
Taxpayers and public budgets could face additional costs from implementing expanded services, training, and disaggregated data collection.
Healthcare systems and providers may face strain recruiting and training enough culturally and language-matched staff (including paraprofessionals), requiring sustained investment and potentially limiting near-term capacity.
Smaller AANHPI subgroups and people with intersecting vulnerabilities could face privacy risks if disaggregated data are not carefully protected, potentially exposing individuals in very small populations.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced May 8, 2025 by Mazie Hirono · Last progress May 8, 2025
Recognizes the mental-health challenges facing the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community and calls for better data, language access, culturally and linguistically appropriate services and training, and stigma reduction. It highlights high unmet need for treatment and that suicide was the leading cause of death for AANHPI youth ages 10–24 during 2018–2023. Encourages disaggregating AANHPI data, expanding provider capacity (including paraprofessionals), addressing discrimination and trauma, and increasing mental-health literacy. Also notes that May is both AANHPI Heritage Month and National Mental Health Awareness Month to underline the link between cultural heritage and mental health.