4 Barriers to Mental Health in Asian American Communities

While Asian Americans are the fastest growing population in the United States, we're also the least likely to seek mental health treatment. And, here's the thing, we're as human as anyone else, so we suffer needlessly with mental health challenges for many reasons. This deck explains how 4 major barriers affect the mental health of Asian Americans.

Presented by DJ Chuang in Atlanta, Georgia, at an Asian American mental health summit on March 14, 2024.

Catalyst Wellness Alliance
https://www.catalystwa.org

Transcript

1. 4 Barriers to Mental Health in Asian American Communities DJ Chuang, Executive Director Catalyst Wellness Alliance www.catalystwa.org
2. How is the mental health of Asian Americans? Least likely to seek mental health services AAPIs adults are the racial group least likely to seek mental health services - 3 times less likely than their white counterparts. Of AAPI adults with a mental illness, 73.1% did not receive treatment compared to 56.7% of the overall population.(MHA) Anti-Asian Hate in America Asian Americans are collectively affected by the Atlanta spa shootings in 2021, over 11,000 acts of hate reported to Stop AAPI Hate, and a recent study noting that 1 in 2 Asian Americans in New York City report personally experiencing either insults, harassments, threats, or a physical attack in the past year because of their race or ethnicity.(TAAF) Crisis of suicide among Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders Suicide was the leading cause of death among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, ages 10 to 19 and the second leading cause of death among those ages 20-34. (SAMHSA)
3. • Language barriers make it difficult for Asian Americans to access mental health services. • Overall, 32.6% of Asian Americans do not speak English fluently.(MHA) • The vast majority (86%) of Asian immigrants 5 and older say they speak a language other than English at home.(Pew 2022) • There are more than 800 spoken languages and dialects among the Asian population in the United States.(AAHI) • Top 5 languages: Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Hindi. ACCESSIBILITY Accessibility
4. EXAMPLE SOLUTIONS • Limited English Proficiency (LEP) LEP.gov • Asian Mental Health Collective’s therapists directory has 25 languages with 2,450 therapists asianmhc.org ACCESSIBILITY Accessibility
5. AFFORDABILITY Accessibility Affordability • 1 in 5 adults say there was a time in the past year when a therapist or mental health treatment was not covered by their insurance.(AXIOS) • 7.4% of Asian Americans and 9.4% of Pacific Islanders do not have health insurance.(CDC) • 10.8% of Asian Americans lived at or below poverty level(Census) ATLANTA PROVIDER • P.E.A.C.E. aapi-peace.org (People's Empowerment through Advocacy, Counseling, and Education)
6. Accessibility Affordability Availability AVAILABILITY • Provider shortage of culturally-competent clinicians with diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds. • A behavioral health office visit is over five times more likely to be out-of-network than a primary care appointment.(NAMI) RESOURCE • AANHPI Service Providers list naapimha.org
7. Accessibility Affordability Availability BARRIERS
8. Accessibility Affordability Availability Acceptability ACCEPTABILITY • Discussing mental health concerns is considered taboo in many Asian cultures. Because of this, Asian Americans tend to dismiss, deny, or neglect their symptoms. • pressure to live up to the “model minority” myth of Asian American success • Face-saving behaviors and the avoidance of face loss (Zane) • shame-based Asian cultures, i.e. 113 terms in Chinese language related to shame(Li et al)
9. 80% 80% of more than 400 participants in 45 countries worldwide agreed that “stigma and discrimination can be worse than the impact of the mental health condition itself” ~ 2022 survey by the Global Mental Health Peer Network https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(23)00374-7/abstract “stigma and discrimination can be worse than the impact of the mental health condition itself”
10. “People with lived experience of mental health conditions are the key change agents for stigma reduction.” https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01470-2 The Lancet Commission on ending stigma and discrimination in mental health
11. Erasing Shame podcast • honest talk for healthy living—emotionally, relationally, mentally, and personally • erasingshame.com lowering the barrier of acceptability Stop Stigma Together • aims to break down the barriers associated with mental health stigmas (structural, social, and self) • stopstigmatogether.org
13. Q&A DJ Chuang Executive Director Catalyst Wellness Alliance www.catalystwa.org email: dj@catalystwa.org phone: 949-243-7260