Mental Health in the AAPI Community
In addition to being AAPI Heritage Month, May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness about mental health and help reduce stigma against it. Mental health is an essential topic, especially with the rise of hate and discrimination directed toward the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities.
According to Stop AAPI Hate, anti-Asian hate crimes are on the rise after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Americans also have increasingly negative views about China, further contributing to the violence—two notable, terrible events being the shootings in Atlanta and Indianapolis. Anti-Asian hate crimes range from the overt, such as slurs and physical assaults, to the more subtle race-based discrimination in the form of microaggressions. The “model minority” myth is an example of a microaggression that feeds into the struggle AAPI communities in the United States face in reconciling their identities.
How do race-based issues impact the mental health of AAPIs?
These experiences of racism and xenophobia have an extremely negative effect on the AAPI communities. According to the Asian American Psychological Association, 42% of those who have experienced discrimination had anxiety symptoms, 30% had depression symptoms, and 39% had symptoms of traumatic stress.
There are also other experiences that impact the mental health of AAPIs. One is the Perpetual Foreigner stereotype, which is when someone is assumed to be foreign-born. This assumption of being an outsider can increase AAPIs’ feelings of other-ness and loneliness. Another is generational trauma. First-generation immigrants may experience trauma and pass this down to future generations—studies have shown that trauma actually shapes the brain, such as research showing that children of Holocaust survivors are much more susceptible to PTSD. Additionally, the stigma against mental health can amplify this negative effect on mental health. According to APA.org, Asian Americans are the least likely racial group to seek professional help for their mental health.
What are some barriers to seeking professional help for AAPIs?
There is a wide range of factors that contribute to someone not seeking help, but some reasons include:
Community attitudes: There is a culture of stoicism and downplaying mental health needs. As an example, according to the National Asian Women’s Health Organization, Asian-American women are affected by the biased and unrealistic standards set by families and society, learned silence on mental health from their families, and fear of the stigma it would bring to their families.
Access to treatment: Language barriers, challenges with insurance, and lack of awareness of resources can all contribute. There is a tendency to seek support from personal networks, such as religious communities, that may lead to AAPIs not seeking professional help.
Low cultural competency among service providers: Many service providers are not well-versed in cultural nuances, which historically has led to misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis of mental illness for AAPIs.
Challenges with health care and insurance: According to the Urban Institute, immigration status, financial obstacles, and high rates of uninsurance and underinsurance are also barriers to accessing affordable mental health services among AAPIs, as well as immigrants more broadly.
What can we do as a community to address mental health?
First, we must raise awareness of the AAPI community’s needs. We need to better understand our different communities’ health and well-being. Additionally, we need to ensure public coverage of these issues in order to drive policy and societal change. AAPIs are often left out of health equity conversations, so we should seek support for research into AAPI health issues and recognition of AAPI needs in reforms. There are gaps in our immigrant communities’ understanding of mental health, and we can all have a positive influence on it, starting with our own awareness.
What are the available mental health resources for AAPIs?
Online resources can be a very helpful tool for the AAPI community. These are just a few but there are so many more:
The Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA) focuses on advocacy and research to advance the mental health and well-being of Asian American communities, including Asian American LGBTQ.
The Asian Mental Health Collective provides APISAA Therapist Directory, a directory of therapists across the U.S. who specialize in serving the AAPI communities.
The National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association is a resource provider for mental health services for AAPIs. It also provides resources for state-level programs and general mental health.
The South Asian Mental Health Initiative & Network helps to address the needs of the South Asian community in the U.S. by providing a list of mental health providers.