The pandemic has generated wide-scale physical and mental health challenges to the Asian and Pacific Islander communities, causing a public health crisis and greatly damaging the community, according to three leading public health experts.
The report, “Toward Healing and Health Equity for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Populations,” was recently released by Dr. Howard K. Koh, Juliet K. Choi, and Jeffery B. Caballero, mainly focusing on the demographics of the Asian American and Pacific Island (AAPI) population, its vulnerability to COVID-19 exposure, and its causes.
“This study could be vital,” said Koh, a professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “It will help people learn more about the AAPI community, instead of recognizing them with simple labels.”
The report found the AAPI group has become the fastest-growing racial and ethnic minority group in the U.S. for the past two decades. From 2000 to 2019, the AAPI population increased by nearly 95%, amounting to 7% of the U.S. population, and it is projected to double by 2060.
However, the rapidly expanding group also led to greater contact with COVID-19.
Lack of access to public health benefits has impacted many patients, both those who seek physical or mental assistance and has become a commonly discussed issue. At the beginning of the pandemic, very few hospitals or counseling services provided documents in any AAPI languages, causing extra difficulties when people with low English proficiency sought medical help.
The public health crisis, moreover, has a mental health perspective.
Aside from the lack of access to medical benefits and income issues, the AAPI community’s misunderstanding of mental therapy played a role in stopping it from getting mental help.
Read more at MetroWestDailyNews.com.
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