One area of mental health and wellness of special interest to us at the Center for Effective Living is how mental health issues are perceived and treated across different cultures. We’re proud of the work we do with immigrants who are dealing with mental health challenges, and we’re sensitive to how difficult it can be for people to seek help if their culture of origin frowns on sharing personal struggles with others. One immigrant group that falls into that category is Asians. Although that’s a broad description for immigrants from a vast and diverse continent, the reluctance to seek mental health treatment– or to acknowledge mental health issues– has been noted by mental health professionals around the country.
Here’s an excerpt from an article on this subject that was published earlier this year on New America Media. Please read this, and if you feel you recognize yourself or someone else, rest assured that reaching out to a qualified mental health professional can be a positive and private experience, and if you’re in the greater Cleveland area, we would be honored to hear from you.
Immigration stressors
Three decades of mental health research shows that Asian Americans, immigrants in particular, exhibit a high number of depressive symptoms, according to a 2011 report by the University of Hawaii.
Some have fled violence and turmoil in their home countries, making them more vulnerable to post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Chinese, Filipino, Japanese and Korean immigrants, the report adds, have consistently shown higher rates of depression than whites.
Reshma Shah is a social worker for the Child Center of NY’s Asian Outreach Program in the largely immigrant Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens. She says many immigrants lose the support system they had back in their home countries, and often experience such stressors as having to learn a different language and adapt to a totally new system.
“They may not have had mental health issues before coming to the U.S. But when we add up all the stressors, the symptoms start to come up,” Shah said at a recent briefing with New York City’s ethnic media, held by the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families and New America Media.
Asian immigrants also have to live up to the myth of being a “model minority,” says Katherine Kam, a veteran journalist who has spent time researching mental health in the Asian American community. She says this stereotype often masks deep-seated mental health issues from those outside the community.
“There’s a perception out there that because we are the model minority, all of our children are doing well, they are academic achievers,” Kam said at the briefing. “So mental health issues [become] kind of an invisible problem.”