Teh and Jen Wei of Danville have no problem bringing home the bacon. Its attempting to purchase it at the grocery store that is the hard part. 

The couple from Taiwan moved to the United States to live with their children. While Teh, 91, was a prominent judge in his former home, cultural barriers such as language handicap him and his wife here. 

Its frustrating, said Jen, 80. We are (at the Alamo Womens Club) to learn words for day-to-day. 

Like many elderly people who move to the United States from countries where the predominant language is not English, they struggle. 

Classes that help those who speak Chinese dialects such as Mandarin and Cantonese learn English are one of the many programs that a nonprofit organization based in Alamo provides to Contra Costa County and other Valley residents on a weekly basis. 

On Mondays and Tuesdays, the Alamo Womens Club is home to the Chinese American Senior Center — one of several programs provided by the Alamo-based Chinese American Mental Health Network. On Monday, senior citizens were enjoying activities such as origami, health dance, and mahjong. 
Mahjong is a Chinese game played with tiles in which a player has to build complete suits from their tiles. The game is one of skill, strategy and intelligence, or as Chinyuan Lin of Alamo said during a hand, "a practice of the mental." 

"It keeps you mentally sharp," Rosa Liao of Orinda said. 

The program is part of the Culture to Culture Foundation, created in January 2004 under the direction of retired psychiatric social worker Chia-Chia Chien. In her 28 years at the Berkeley Mental Health Clinic, she worked to help relieve the stresses caused by uncomfortable social conditions. 

Chien, 59, said that she decided to start the non-profit organization in Contra Costa County because the area did not have a lot of services for the Chinese community, particularly seniors — leaving them with a cultural void. 

"A lot of elderly stay at home while their children work full time," she said. "If (the children) are the only source they have to the outside world and they are gone the whole day, it leaves (the parents) immobilized and essentially crippled." 

She says that the surrounding language and cultural barriers can make Chinese elderly feel dumb and deaf, which is why the center creates a haven for these seniors. 

"(Contra Costa County) is relatively white, compared to other counties—San Francisco, Oakland," she said. "So there are limited resources, but a need to promote mental health." 

Asian-American women have the highest suicide rate among women over the age of 65 and the second highest between ages 15 to 24 in the United States, according to the Culture to Culture Foundation. Despite that, there are very few that utilize mental health services, Chien said. 

"It's very much a tendency in Asian-American cultures — and Hispanic cultures to an extent —to wait until an emergency or something's gone wrong to seek help for problems," she said. 

Earlier this year, the organization started offering a third day of senior activities on Fridays at the San Ramon Senior Center. 

"It is definitely busier in here on Fridays now," said Senior Program Manager Teri Mountford, adding that karaoke classes seem to be the biggest draw. 
"They are integrating into our other classes during the rest of the week, so it is a positive." she said. 

Chien said the hope is that more places in the county will offer space for classes during the week. 

An immigrant to the United States at the age of 22, Chien said she empathizes with the "almost crippling" difficulties of language barriers. She moved to the United States at the age of 22 to attend graduate school at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill. 

"It was difficult to adjust, especially with the language barrier, it is a lot to deal with at once," she said. "Having gone down that path, it's easier to identify with those difficulties and help." 

For any questions or assistance, call the Chinese American Mental Health Helpline at (877) 455-998.

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