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Nashua health officials are working to decrease the stigma surrounding mental health for Latinos in the city, through an initiative that seeks to understand the community’s current mental health needs.

Equity Officer Iraida Muñoz said the city’s division of public health hosted a community conversation last month about mental health in English, Spanish and Portuguese, with a focus on emotional well-being. She said some of the most interesting responses were about the cultural taboos among Latinos about talking about mental health — especially for young men.

“Some of the answers we found is that people don’t talk about their feelings at home; this isn’t something Hispanics usually emphasize, but they do connect in other ways,” Muñoz said in Spanish.

Watila Burpee is a therapist at the Greater Nashua Mental Health Center who has spent nearly two decades working with Hispanic clients and raising awareness about the ongoing mental health crisis. Echoing Muñoz, she said an additional barrier for many of her clients is the cultural attitude towards mental health.

“Latino culture doesn’t see mental illness as something that is important to take care, just like the physical health,” she said. “They think that’s a shame. That’s just something that we don’t talk about.”

Read more at NHPR.org.

Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is one of the nation’s most remote regions, stretching across 75,000 square miles of mountains, tundra and coastal wetlands along the Bering Sea. The U.S. Census counts the population at roughly 27,000 – the majority of whom are Alaska Natives of Yup’ik and Athabascan descent – placing the region among the most sparsely populated areas in the United States. There are no roads connecting the Delta’s 50 villages to the national system. It’s also home to the nation’s highest rates of suicide.

Since the 1950s, mental health experts say that suicide prevention models have largely been designed to identify and mitigate risk through an individualized approach, treating symptoms like anxiety or suicidal ideation through therapy or counseling. But as suicide rates have steadily risen over the past few decades, a group of Indigenous researchers at the Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) have been developing a new approach across the villages of the Y-K Delta.

For decades, it’s been common to see headlines that highlight the wide spectrum of challenges confronting the Y-K Delta: the lingering psychological impacts of residential boarding schools; high rates of substance use and sexual violence stemming from generational trauma; dwindling salmon runs that limit food and livelihood; and a changing climate that is threatening low-lying village communities along the coast with flooding and erosion.

But the researchers at CANHR, who work out of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, believe that all this focus on risks might actually be part of the problem. They say that as a result, these communities are often viewed solely through the prism of their challenges, while funders and research groups across the field of suicide prevention have dedicated too little attention and resources towards approaches that emphasize their inherent strengths. “We’ve been trying risk reduction approaches for nearly half a century,” says Stacy Rasmus, the director at CANHR. “And we are not moving the needle with those approaches.”

The origins of CANHR’s innovative prevention efforts can be traced, in part, to the conversations that emerged in response to intense media coverage of the problems confronting the communities of the Y-K Delta. In the 1980s, the Anchorage Daily News published a Pulitzer Prize-winning series called “A People in Peril,” which described a burgeoning crisis of suicide and substance use in Alaska’s Bush villages. “The Alaska Federation of Natives came out after that and said, ‘yes, that’s a reality, but that’s not who we are,’” says Rasmus.

Read more at NPR.org.

Faye Du is conflicted. Like other children of immigrants, she’s grateful for the opportunities her parents have worked to provide her. And yet, she says, the pressure to honor their sacrifice through academic success has taken a toll on her mental health. As students across the country return to school, Asian American students like Du are grappling with an issue they say goes largely unaddressed in their own homes. Du describes a downward spiral where the pressure to succeed in school fed into the mental turmoil she was experiencing, which in turn impacted her performance in school which again fueled her inner anguish. And the worst part, she says, was that she couldn’t confide in her family. “In my household, poor mental health or mental disorders are seen as a disease or something that makes you less of a respectable and functioning human.”

Studies show Asian Americans are 50% less likely than other racial groups in the US to seek out help for mental health issues. A recent article in JAMA Pediatrics also noted an alarming rise in suicide rates among Asian American youth ages 15-24, with a 72% increase for males and a 125% increase for females between 1999 and 2021. Suicide is the leading cause of death for Asian American and Pacific Islander youth.

Advocates for disaggregating health data along racial and ethnic lines have long argued that doing so can provide a more granular understanding of the health challenges unique to specific communities. The federal government announced earlier this year that it would do just that, with new standards for data collection to be rolled out over the next five years.

Whether it’s the emphasis on family over the individual, common in Asian cultures, or the myth of the model minority, these entrenched norms can often make it difficult to open up about an issue that for many is deeply personal. As more young Asian Americans succumb to depression and the silence around mental health, the need for open conversations about these issues is greater than ever. 

Read more at EthnicMediaServices.org.

Mental health challenges reach every demographic, but because of stigma and a resulting lack of connections, LGBTQ+ Americans disproportionately struggle with depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation. According to U.S. Census Bureau data collected between 2021 and 2022, LGBT adults reported symptoms of depression and anxiety (42.5% and 49.6%) at about twice the rate of heterosexual respondents (19.6% and 24.6%). According to U.S. Census Bureau data collected between 2021 and 2022, LGBT adults reported symptoms of depression and anxiety (42.5% and 49.6%) at about twice the rate of heterosexual respondents (19.6% and 24.6%).

According to Identity Insights Founder and Chief Executive Officer Devin Pinkston, one of the primary reasons the LGBTQ+ community faces higher rates of mental health struggle is a lack of belonging and community. She said one reason why the LGBTQ+ population is likely struggling with mental health at a higher rate is because minority communities are more likely to lack those connections in rural and conservative areas.

Identity Insights is a mental health counseling service in Grand Junction that Pinkston opened in 2016 after noticing a gap in welcoming environments and affirming therapy for the LGBTQ+ population. She said the certified counselors and therapists are all educated in the nuances and standards of care for LGBTQ+ and especially transgender clients. Pinkston added that while not every aspect of an LGBTQ+ person’s mental health is tied to their identity or orientation, it’s critical they know all aspects are accepted and feel comfortable in mental health settings.

Read more at KUNC.org.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), recently awarded $68 million in grants for suicide prevention and mental health care programs. Addressing the U.S. mental health crisis and preventing suicide are top priorities of the Biden-Harris Administration and part of President Biden’s Unity Agenda.

“Every September we recognize Suicide Prevention Month as a time to raise awareness—to remind those struggling that they are not alone and that there is hope. Many people who have experienced suicidal thoughts are alive today because they got help,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, “The Biden-Harris Administration is deeply committed to expanding and improving suicide prevention in order to save lives. That is why we launched the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline two years ago and why we continue to invest in suicide prevention programs that help save lives across this country.”

In April, the Biden-Harris Administration launched a new National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and first-ever Federal Action Plan, which provide concrete recommendations for addressing gaps and meeting the needs of populations disproportionately impacted by suicide and more than 200 actions to be initiated and evaluated in the next three years.

Suicide Prevention Month is recognized every September as a time to raise awareness about suicide and share messages of hope. Information about suicide, including data, warning signs and risk factors, how to support someone considering suicide, and ways to learn more and share information are available on SAMHSA’s website.

Read more at SAMHSA.gov.

We know that people of all ethnicities and cultures experience mental health conditions, and that Black individuals experiences mental health challenges at rates similar to other groups. However, when considering the mental health of Black Americans, it’s important to look at historical and cultural factors, some of which have led to significant disparities. For example, 25% of Black people seek mental health treatment when needed, compared to 40% of white people.

The stigma of mental health isn’t new to the Black community. Martin Luther King Jr. reportedly had severe depression during periods of his life and refused psychiatric treatment, even when urged to seek care by his staff. Unfortunately, that scenario continues to be common today, with African Americans not seeking mental health care because of stigma.

Black Americans develop mental health conditions at a rate equal to anyone else. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has declared racism a serious threat to public health that has placed communities of color at greater risk for poor health outcomes. When considering the mental health of Black Americans, it is important to view their experience through a historical and cultural lens. The Black community has shown resilience in the face of adversity for centuries.

According to the American Psychological Association, racial trauma can result from direct experiences of racism, as well as insidious occurrences that add up over time. Major experiences of racism include physical and verbal attacks, while indirect stressors include seeing videos of police brutality on social media or being the target of subtle putdowns. Racial trauma can also result from intergenerational trauma: traumatic stress passed from one generation to the next. Stress reactions to trauma are normal responses to abnormal situations. A person’s response to a trauma depends on the individual, the type of trauma, the meaning of the trauma, as well as cultural factors.

Read more at McLeanHospital.org.