Be Well Initiative: Advancing mind-body-health for the Nepalese diaspora
About UsRecent Activities
Mental Health and Youth Community Event
WHY: May is Mental Health Awareness Month so we would like to provide support to our community members so they can lead healthy and fulfilling lives! WHERE: Walter Reed Community Centers 2909 S. 16th Street Arlington, VA 22204 (O:...
Be Well Internship (Part-Time Volunteer Intern): CONTACT Immediately
The Be Well Initiative (BWI) is a new and exciting initiative and has its roots in human suffering, specifically aiding the Nepali diaspora. This is a collaboration of scientists, advocates, professionals, and community leaders who gather to join hands...Let's never abandon hope!
My name is Himali, from a small village outside the Metropolitan Kathmandu, Nepal. I came to the USA in 2007 and started my journey by enrolling at a Community College. At the same time, my father, in Nepal, had...Reflection on Helping a community with a tragedy “Lets talk about Mental Health”
The Dec 3rd program was an event where community members came to learn, absorb, participate, and take home vital information and new ideas. The mood in the room seemed both alive and sublime as if participants were revealing and expressing their authentic...
Focus Groups
In a variety of BWI Focus Groups, despite cultural norms against the public airing of emotional or psychological issues, especially individual or family vulnerability, participants discussed painful issues with a candor and poignancy. Youth appear to be the most...
BWI Statement
What we stand for
- Developing psycho-social support for individuals, families, and the entire community.
- Building a mind-body health and wellness “prevention” as well as early counseling intervention infrastructure that supports everyday family and community health and vitality.
- Being a resource in dealing with potential future disasters.
- Evolving resource bridges between communities and government, non-profit, and private resources.
A model is envisioned for individuals, families, and even communities as a whole:
- to progressively strengthen psycho-social health and mind-body well-being.
- to increase a sense of sharing, openness, and psychosocial connection within a variety of personal to communal group settings.
- to more effectively use existing community resources for stress-transition resilience and to close resource gaps, and 4) through education, prevention, and early intervention, live healthier and more productive lives.
As the BWI team of experts probed into emotional wellsprings and stories of individuals, families and groups, qualitative knowledge about Nepali diaspora community health and wellness emerged. Identified key stress factors are as follows:
- Life in the United States
Pursuing the American Dream - Balancing act
The emotional and societal expectations of families back-home is another pressure-packed dimension in this population’s “survival of the fittest” chase of the “American Dream,”
- Sacred Spaces
Individuals’ mind-body space is so sacred that one does not disclose even when the mind itself is in crisis. (Of course, shame can also impede sharing.) Consequently, too many minor mind-body issues are not addressed until the eruption of severe depression, personality disorders, domestic and substance abuse and, even, suicide.
- Outreach
BWI plans to increase its outreach to the Nepali and South Asian Diaspora.
- Cross-Cultural Partnership
BWI continues its outreach to other immigrant communities for mutual learning and shared resources and support.
- Resource Development
BWI is developing partnership with CBOs for federal (SAMHSA) and private grants.
Let's never abandon hope!
No matter how long and bitter the winter may be, the law of life declares that spring always follows. If we are experiencing the darkness of depression, let’s never abandon hope!
Read full tesimonialBWI Team
Dr. Surendra Bir Adhikari
Research Lead, Mental Health Administrator of the Ohio Mental Health & Addiction Services
Rupsha Singh
Doctoral Student, Clinical Psychology
Prativa Timilsina
MA, MSW
BWI Supporters
Sanjita Pradhan
Executive officer, Iowa Office of Asian Affairs and Pacific Islanders, Iowa Dept. of Human Rights, and a former member of President’s Advisory Commission on Asian and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI)
Dr. DJ Ida
Executive Director of National Asian American and Pacific Islander Mental Health Association (NAAPIHMA).
Diane Narasaki
Executive Director, Asian Counseling Referral Services (ACRS), Seattle, WA, and a former member of President’s Advisory Commission on Asian and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI)
BWI Partners
SANN
A nursing organization that can assemble all nurses from Nepal was a growing need in the Nepalese communities residing in the United States of America.
MannMukti
MannMukti was founded by Abhijith (Abhi) Ravinutala who, after the death of his best friend, made it his mission to reduce the stigma against mental health issues in South Asian communities.