Stop Mental Health Stigma in Our Communities Act of 2025
The Stop Mental Health Stigma in Our Communities Act of 2025 would amend the Public Health Service Act to create a national outreach and education strategy focused on improving behavioral health and reducing stigma within Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities. The bill requires coordination among HHS agencies (including the Office of Minority Health, NIH, and CDC) and input from advocacy and behavioral health groups. It would also commission systematic national reviews on (a) AANHPI youth behavioral health and (b) the AANHPI behavioral health workforce shortage, with data disaggregated by race/ethnicity, age, gender, geography, and other factors. The act authorizes funding for these efforts (roughly $3 million annually for the strategy and $1.5 million annually for the two reviews) and requires annual public reporting to Congress about progress and findings. In short, the bill seeks to raise awareness, reduce stigma, improve culturally and linguistically appropriate services, and generate targeted data and recommendations to strengthen AANHPI behavioral health across youth and the workforce.
Key Points
- 1Establishment of a National AANHPI Behavioral Health Outreach and Education Strategy to reduce stigma and promote culturally and linguistically appropriate behavioral health information and services.
- 2Strategy design requirements to address diverse AANHPI subgroups, languages, ages, and cultural differences, with consumer and community engagement in developing materials.
- 3Annual reporting to Congress (beginning within 1 year of enactment) on the strategy’s impact on awareness and engagement within AANHPI communities, with public availability of the report.
- 4Authorization of appropriations of $3,000,000 per fiscal year from 2026 through 2030 to fund the strategy.
- 5Section 5: Systematic review and report on AANHPI youth behavioral health crises, including prevalence, risk factors, suicide and overdose data, and treatment rates, with data disaggregation and a public report due within 1 year of enactment.
- 6Section 6: Systematic review and report on AANHPI behavioral health workforce shortages, including workforce counts, licensure, practice settings, cultural/linguistic capabilities, and barriers to education and enrollment, with a public report due within 1 year of enactment.
- 7Authorization of appropriations for the two workforce and youth reviews at $1,500,000 each for fiscal year 2026.