History

The Healthy Asian Americans Project (HAAP) at the University of Michigan’s School of Nursing started in 1996 through the efforts of the late Dr. Mei-yu Yu. Dr. Yu, who continuously promoted health awareness in the Asian community, established the project to help low-income Asian women find access to free pap smears and mammograms. Since then, HAAP’s mission has expanded to improving the overall health status of Asian Americans and to reduce health disparities through research, education, and promotion. HAAP reaches out to seven ethnic groups including Asian Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Hmong, Vietnamese, Filipino and Korean. In the past years, HAAP has received numerous grants to initiate unique programs to raise health awareness and to promote health education in the Asian American community. Previous projects include:

Most recently, HAAP is involved in three major projects:

Personal Action Toward Health (PATH) - PATH aims to help those with chronic health conditions, such as diabetes, arthritis, and heart disease by directing participants to where they can find affordable, effective medical care; and to improve personal health habits through education and awareness. In February 2007, fourteen completed the PATH training including six HAAP’s staff members become certified leaders to conduct 6-week PATH sessions.
Michigan Colorectal Cancer Screening Program (MCRCSP) - MCRCSP provides free colorectal cancer screening (i.e., fecal occult blood test and colonoscopy) for the qualified participants.
Hepatitis B (HBV) - Because of the high incidence of hepatitis B in the Asian American population, HAAP strives to educate participants about HBV at health fairs and various other community events and provide free testing.