MHISA

Texas

UT Austin Chapter: Spring 2026

Current Events

Mental Health Initiative for South Asians's member

Research Excellence

Our research team just won $1500 for best poster at the Texas Research Showdown. We focused on examining differences in suicide risk and gender moderation

Mental Health Initiative for South Asians activities

Kevin Love Fund Partnership

We recently partnered with the Kevin Love Fund to provide mental health education to middle school and high school students in both Austin and Dallas.

Spice Up Your Mind: Issue 2

MHISA Texas released issue 2 of their magazine: Spice Up Your Mind. From articles about students sharing their stories to visually creative ways to discuss

Community Work

Our chapter works to engage the greater Austin, Texas region. Specifically, the South Asian communities that we are able to integrate our education, resources, and awareness efforts into.

The work to break the stigma around mental health within the South Asian culture starts on the ground with community leaders and big audiences. Our outreach efforts are always in progress and we couldn’t be more grateful.

If you are looking to get involved or learn more about our community work, please contact us!

Somatization

We are currently parsing data to link physical symptoms to diagnosed mental health problems

SAATC

We are currently conducting a large scale literature review on the subject of South Asian attitudes toward care (SAATC), as well as planning out study.

South Asian Identification

We are currently testing our Natural Language Processing (NLP) model for accuracy on identifying South Asian names within various datasets.

Research

Asian students, according to the latest UT Austin statistics, make up 22% of the student body. Of that number, the South Asian population plays a key role in the culture on campus.

With research at MHISA Texas, we utilize the excellent resources available to students across to identify, analyze, publish, and present data that drive the MHISA vision. Not only do we stand at the forefront of South Asian study, we enable academics the opportunity to shed light on topics never before studied, while nurturing the next generation of South Asian researchers.

Resources

During our Fall 2024 semester, MHISA Texas aims to further develop our curriculum and South Asian Mental Health First Aid training.

The Intervention Development committee works closely with our outreach efforts to ensure the mental health curriculum is adequately tailored to the South Asian community audience. At the moment, the curriculum is in its final stages of development and academic review prior to polit testing.

Our South Asian Mental Health First Aid education, or training, is being developed alongside the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC) at UT Austin. We are currently working through the foundation.

Mental Health First Aid Certification

Mental Health First Aid is an evidence-based, early-intervention course that teaches participants about mental health and substance use challenges.

If you or someone you know is interested, take action today!

For students in our University Chapters, reach out to your local organization for in-person MHFA training schedules.