According to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration’s 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a quarter of Asian American adults with mental illness had received mental health treatment in the past year. In that same timeframe, more than half of white Americans with mental illness received treatment.
For people seeking mental health care, reaching out and finding a provider can be a deeply personal experience. But for members of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, like Malic and Yu, broadly referred to as the AANHPI community, seeking mental health care can involve not just disclosing personal information, but also negotiating language barriers and cultural stigma from within their own personal histories.
One barrier that can prevent AANHPI individuals from seeking mental health care is the stigma associated with mental illness and mental health challenges in various AANHPI cultures.
Beyond stigma, an additional barrier to mental health care for AANHPI people can be whether or not the provider is able to speak the client’s language.
To combat the barrier of stigma, Malic and others believe talking about mental health has to become normalized within AANHPI communities.
Read more on Cronkite News.
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