Asian Americans are among the least likely to seek mental health care. In one study, less than 9% sought any type of mental health services over one year compared with 18% of the general U.S. population. The COVID-19 pandemic, compounded by an increase in anti-Asian hate and violence, has further highlighted the lack of mental health awareness, research and treatment among the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.
These were among the issues addressed by a virtual panel of mental health experts during a May 25 event organized by the Stanford Center for Asian Health Research and Education. The panelists, who shared personal and professional experiences, discussed the current state of mental health among the AAPI community and ways to overcome barriers to care.
Raising awareness is key to encouraging AAPIs to seek mental health care, said DJ Ida, PhD, executive director of the National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association. A silver lining of the ongoing pandemic has been more awareness that mental health issues can affect anyone, she said.
“It begins to take the stigma away because it isn’t, ‘Oh, there is something wrong with me,’” she said. “We always tell people, if you’re breathing, then mental health will be part of your life one way or another.” She added that even mental health professionals like her can forget to give themselves the space to feel grief and pain in difficult times.
As a suicide attempt survivor, Pata Suyemoto, PhD, director of training and programs at the National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association, shared her own experience of seeking mental health care.
“It was difficult to find a therapist that had cultural humility,” she said. “I’m 60 years old — until my current therapist, no one ever asked me about the impact of my culture on my mental health.” Her mother’s bipolar disorder and her father’s trauma of being imprisoned during World War II in an internment camp were never acknowledged out loud in her family — a silence familiar to many in the AAPI community. “As an Asian American, I feel like it’s really important for us to be out with our healing, if you will,” she said.
Read more at Med.Stanford.edu.
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