April 7, 2023 | VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
The COVID-19 pandemic has touched every person and population in the last 3 years. But as clinicians have seen with many other pulmonary diseases, challenges like lack of access and communication barriers can amplify the effects of illness and further expand existing disparities. When a dramatic increase in racial bias is added to this mix, the resulting impact on patients can be devastating.
To learn more about the experience of patients from Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities during the COVID-19 pandemic—and how clinicians can improve care for this population—Elizabeth J. Stigler, PhD, Director, Diversity Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at CHEST, spoke with David Li, Social Impact and Policy Officer at the Chinese American Service League (CASL).
Stigler: Tell us more about the mission and vision of CASL and the work it does with AANHPI individuals and communities.
Li: CASL is located in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood and is the largest AANHPI-serving nonprofit in the Midwest. For more than 40 years, CASL has provided a growing range of direct services and supports to individuals and families.
In 2021, we served more than 6,000 individual clients across our programs, including child and youth education, adult employment and financial empowerment, citizenship and legal support, as well as behavioral health and community engagement. Our clients come from all over Illinois and neighboring states to access our programs, like our HUD Housing Program, which is the only Chinese-language HUD-certified housing program in the state.
As the Social Impact and Policy Officer, my role is housed in our Center for Social Impact, which drives our data-informed practice and is where our social drivers of health (SDoH) survey instrument was developed. When we designed our SDoH 3 years ago, it was in response to a lack of disaggregated data about AANHPI individuals and also just a bigger lack of AANHPI representation at all. What started with a question to illuminate social conditions has now grown into a shared community data portal called Change InSight™.