NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
NAPCA staff and Sen. Patty Murray pose for a picture. Photo courtesy of Sen. Patty Murray’s office.
Sen. Patty Murray has secured $1 million in funding for the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging’s (NAPCA) multilingual helpline for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) elders. The helpline supports healthcare and assistance program access to elders whose first language may not be English. Murray first secured federal funding to establish the helpline in 2004.
Murray met with the center’s president and CEO, Clayton Fong, and held a roundtable discussion that included both center workers who staff the helpline and the elders who use it.
Xiufen Li spoke through a translator at the roundtable to tell her story. Though she is now a benefits counselor and digital skills tutor, she first gained hands-on skills as a helpline worker through NAPCA’s Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP).
“Through SCSEP, I was able to gain skills at different host agencies and improve my computer proficiency. Through digital skills training, I transitioned from a student to a teaching assistant and was later hired,” she said. “Currently, I assist Chinese clients with their benefits through the helpline. And I lead the Chinese student skills classes. I am so grateful for the opportunity to develop my skills while making some money to support my retirement and for being able to help others in the community who need support just as I once did.”
Fong expressed his gratitude for Murray’s and her team’s efforts in supporting AANHPI elders.
“For more than 30 years,” Fong said, “Sen. Murray has been a champion in Congress and advocate for our elders’ access to job training, skills building, healthcare, and services for older Americans.”
“Navigating programs like SNAP, LIHEAP, Medicare, and Social Security is already more difficult than it should be and it can seem next to impossible for seniors whose first language isn’t English,” Murray said. “That’s why the work NAPCA does through the helpline is so important. … The helpline can be the difference between having health care or being unable to fill a prescription next year. Between affording groceries or struggling to put dinner on the table.”
She said that the work is especially important in the wake of President Donald Trump’s policies and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which has taken away health care access for millions of Americans, and made it more difficult to meet other basic needs.
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