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Asian American Olympians representing the United States are competing for gold in Tokyo as Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are targets of violence and bigotry back home. Advocates say the anti-Asian hate is taking a mental health toll on Asian Americans, and Asian American athletes are entering the games under the added pressure of competing in Asia before a worldwide audience.

At least two Asian American athletes say they experienced episodes of bigotry as they prepared to compete in the Olympics and as other Asian Americans have encountered assaults linked to anti-Asian hate.

Karate athlete Sakura Kokumai, a Hawaii-born woman to Japanese immigrants, told a recent USA Today virtual forum that she endured racist slurs and verbal harassment before going for a run in a park. Gymnast Yul Moldauer, born in Seoul and adopted by American parents as an infant, told the same forum he was recently cut off in traffic by a motorist who then yelled at him: go back to China.

Snowboarder Chloe Kim, a first-generation Korean American and an Olympic halfpipe gold medalist, said she has received hateful Instagram direct messages that have taken a toll on her mental health.

Anti-Asian hate crimes reported to police in the U.S.’s largest cities jumped 189% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period of time in 2020, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

Read more at Axios.com.

The following blog was authored by Drew Hickman, BS; Fulvia Camargo; Shayla C. Anderson, MPH, CHES; and Mary Roary, PhD, MBA at the SAMHSA Office of Behavioral Health Equity (OBHE).

As we observe National Suicide Prevention Month and strive to improve the mental health of community members, it is essential to step back to analyze how important mental health is and how harmful stigma can be in minority communities.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), mental illness is one of the most common medical conditions in the United States, and more than 50 percent of the population will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their lives. Even though mental illness is evident across race, ethnicity, and gender, some minority groups including African Americans, American Indians and Alaskan Natives, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Hispanic and Latinx, and LGBTQ+ individuals experience higher stress and stigma associated with mental illness.

A stigma is a negative and often unfair social attitude attached to a person or group. Three types of stigmas – including public, self, and institutional stigma – are identified by the American Psychiatric Association.

• Public stigma is the negative or discriminatory attitudes that others have about mental illness.
• Self-stigma is the negative attitudes that people with mental illness have about their conditions.
• Institutional stigma is systematic, involving policies of the government and private organizations that limit opportunities for people with mental illness.

Stigma can create significant barriers for minority communities accessing mental health services. Members of racial groups can internalize negative stereotypes of their culture, leading to increased psychological distress and substance abuse. More than half of people do not receive treatment or help for their disorders. Stigma, prejudice, and discrimination against people with mental illness are still very present today. They often cause people to avoid or delay treatment due to concerns about being treated poorly or fear of losing their jobs and livelihood.

Changing the way mental health services are administered can help reduce stigma and barriers. To encourage this change, SAMHSA has developed the National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health (NNED). The NNED is a network of community-based organizations focused on the mental health and substance use issues of diverse racial and ethnic communities. The NNED supports information-sharing, training, and technical assistance toward the goal of promoting behavioral health equity. In 2021, SAMHSA’s Office of Behavioral Health Equity hosted the eleventh NNEDLearn annual training, which included five different tracks of NNED community-based organizations being trained in an evidence-supported and culturally appropriate mental illness and substance use prevention or treatment practice.

The five training tracks offered were:

• Achieving Whole Health: Balancing Mind, Body, and Spirit (AWH)
• Familia Adelante: Multi-Risk Reduction Behavioral Health Prevention for Latino Youth and Families (FA)
• Motivational Interviewing (MI)
• Preventing Long-Term Anger and Aggression in Youth (PLAAY)
• Project Venture: Positive Youth Development for American Indian and Alaska Native Youth (PV)

Interventions such as these allow for mental health services to be provided in non-traditional, culturally appropriate, and accessible ways to minority communities. They help eliminate stigma and reduce barriers to accessing culturally and linguistically appropriate behavioral health care by building on the innate strengths of individuals’ racial, ethnic, and cultural heritage. To learn more about NNEDLearn, read the NNEDLearn Implementation Analysis Report and watch brief digital stories from SAMHSA’s NNEDLearn YouTube Playlist!

Please see resources from SAMHSA below where you can access mental health support immediately.

If you or someone you know is in a crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

• Help in English: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
• Ayuda en español: 1-888-628-9454

In July, Oklahoma expanded free Medicaid coverage to an additional 200,000 low-income adults, including many tribal members, after voters passed a ballot initiative compelling the state to do so.

“They’ve had to choose between getting the specialty health care they need and feeding their family,” said Rhonda Beaver, the chief administrative officer for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s Health Department. “This Medicaid expansion helps our Native American people who had to make those choices.” Since the expansion took effect on July 1, more than 23,000 eligible Native Americans have enrolled in the program, according to state officials — about 13 percent of the total 171,056 people who have signed up statewide.

The Indian Health Service is chronically underfunded, and Indigenous Oklahomans disproportionately lack insurance coverage. For Native Americans, the death rates for preventable diseases, like addiction, diabetes and liver disease, are three to five times higher than for any other race.

For Jonathan Martin, 37, his family of five in Park Hill, Okla., lost their health insurance after he was laid off from his job in March because of the pandemic. Soon after, Mr. Martin, a diabetic, contracted Covid-19 and nearly died following a weeklong stint in the hospital with pneumonia and weakening kidneys.

His wife, Adrian Martin, 30, said her husband recovered but the mental strain that the virus had caused left him needing behavioral health treatment. He was afraid to leave his home for fear of catching the virus again and dying, she said. Without insurance, Ms. Martin said, they were unable to find him the help he needed in the tribal health care system, which she said had a long waiting list for such care.

After qualifying for Medicaid expansion, Ms. Martin was able to obtain free coverage for her family and get her husband into therapy.

Read more at NYTimes.com.

The COVID-19 pandemic, racial unrest, and police brutality over the past year-plus have all contributed to increased reports of anxiety and depression in the United States. The trauma experienced as a result of these tumultuous events has elevated conversations about mental health in the Black community, where the topic was once largely taboo.

It’s never been clearer that prioritizing our mental health is a must, but for many Black Americans, social and structural systemic factors have been barriers to getting mental health care. In the second year of #BlackHealthFacts, which was launched on Juneteenth 2020, Everyday Health examines these issues to raise awareness and help influence change.

Patrice Harris, MD, a psychiatrist and Everyday Health’s medical editor in chief at large, examines the stigma associated with mental illness, mistrust of the healthcare system, and other factors that have prevented Black Americans from receiving appropriate treatment in the past, and looks at how to make mental health as important as physical health.

Read more at EverydayHealth.com.

In the past year, teenagers watched major milestones evaporate before their eyes, while also missing out on all the small moments that make the teen years unique. Mental health professionals said teens are particularly vulnerable to emotional instability, and they have experienced the pain of the pandemic more deeply than other age groups.

While they lost many typical teen experiences, the last year also had young people cooped up with stressed-out parents working from home. Others saw their parents lose jobs that offered health insurance with coverage for counseling, at a time when they might need it the most.

Clinical psychologist Joseph Troiani, director of behavioral health programs for the Will County Health Department, said the world stopped for teens when the pandemic hit, at an age when they’re developing skill sets to maturely manage their emotions.

“These human beings are still growing and developing. The most recent research shows that an individual’s brain is not fully developed until the age of about 23,” Troiani said. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Troiani said state health divisions collectively report a 34% increase in people taking anti-anxiety medications, an 18% increase in antidepressant use, and a 14% increase in medications prescribed for sleeplessness. Those statistics reflect use by people of all age groups, including teens.

At a time when life should be moving forward for teenagers, they’re unable to advance, Breese said, partially because right now they lack the outlets — classes, clubs, sports, and social time — to develop the self-identity they seek.

Read more at ChicagoTribune.com.

For Robin Miyamoto, a clinical psychologist in urban Honolulu County, Hawaii, the past year marked the hardest she’s ever worked.

Telehealth, which she made use of during the COVID-19 pandemic, let her still reach clients in the absence of in-person visits. But she found it difficult to draw boundaries, as she and other providers agreed to offer weekend or late-night sessions with patients in need.

On top of that, she says, she’s had more patients asking for help than ever before.

“We’re seeing much higher rates of anxiety – both COVID-related but also finance-related, employment-related,” Miyamoto says. The Hawaii Psychological Association, of which Miyamoto is a past president, saw a 60% increase in applications for pro bono care during the pandemic due to the loss of insurance, she says.

“A lot of depression, isolation,” Miyamoto adds. “And then I have a huge number of adults requesting assessments for (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) because of work from home … people are questioning their ability to stay focused and pay attention.”

When it comes to mental health, Honolulu County is the country’s top performer, according to the 2021 U.S. News Healthiest Communities rankings. The annual project assesses nearly 3,000 counties and county-equivalents across the U.S. on dozens of metrics that show and shape health and well-being, in categories ranging from equity, housing, and the economy to population health, public safety, and food and nutrition.

But the pandemic has meant significant challenges for Hawaii when it comes to mental health – ones that providers are now working to meet through comprehensive care.

Read more at USNews.com.