Asian American Mental Health Issues

“They would not be able to help me and I do not need their help anyway” is a common answer given by Korean-Americans when asked why they do not utilize mental health services, such as psychotherapy. This response broadly reflects two of the predominant reasons why Korean-Americans largely oppose the notion of Western psychotherapy. For one, there is the widespread opinion among the Korean-American population that the psychotherapist or mental health specialist conceives of the problems and solutions using a framework that differs from the cultural beliefs held by Korean-Americans (Kim & Ryu, 2005). Korean-Americans are inclined to believe that Western psychotherapy cannot be helpful in resolving their issues because the therapist will

THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON MENTAL HEALTH AND HOW THIS CAN AFFECT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEN THE HEALTH CARE PROVIDER AND THE CLIENT

Asian American parents believe in keeping many of their issue within the family which makes them reluctant to seek services. Because of this culture believe, Asian Americans utilize mental health services at a lower rate compared to other Americans (Sue, 1994). Socially sanctioned claims concerning Asian American's social character or integrity helps to explain why they don't utilize services as often as other Americans. Counselors can work to lessen the effects of racism and discrimination that have impacted Americans by expanding their knowledge of discriminations experiences of Asian American's and

Among Asian-American adults, those aged 18-34 had the highest rates of suicidal thoughts (11.9 percent), intent (4.4 percent) and attempts (3.8 percent) compared to other age groups. This shows that the strict method that Chinese mothers use usually leads to their children to develop elevated levels of suicidal thoughts. A paragraph in the article Christine Lu states that ” My big sister was what I use to jealously call “every Asian parent’s wet dream came true”, she committed suicide a month after her wedding at the age of

Mental health illnesses affect everyone. It is highly prevalent affecting people of all ages, gender, cultures, and social groups. Attitudes towards mental health illnesses vary among individuals and often are highly influenced by the various cultures that the individuals identify with. Culture as a social concept can be defined as a set of norms, values, behaviours, and beliefs that are common and shared amongst a group of individuals (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). Culture can be applicable to groups like Asians and Americans but also to groups of shared norms, beliefs, and values established within professions such as the culture of patients and practitioners. Culture provides these groups with structure and context to understanding their society and the world as a whole. Culture influence a wide range of aspects of mental health, including how mental health is perceived by the patient, how the patient will experience mental health stigma, and how they cope with symptoms of mental health illness. Additionally, these cultural influences impact the relationship between the patient and the practitioner in a number of ways.

Thesis: Mental Illness in colleges needs to be addressed because of the rise in college students being diagnosed in mental health problems.

Nielsen, S., Anckarsater, H., Gillberg, C., Gillberg, C., Råstam, M., & Wentz, E. (2015). Effects

When given the thought of what a minority might be, someone immediately thinks, Hispanic, African-American, poor and disabled people, but often they leave out Asians. Even though Asians are the biggest minority group excluded from research, the media and mental health. Since mental health is the a big discussion right now, there lies a stigma in between Asian culture as a

Sumana Kaipa, person chosen to be interviewed, believes that like many ethnic groups, many South Asian Americans do not seek psychological help, instead they go to their families for assistance

Transcultural psychiatry studies how culture influences presentations of mental disorders and response to treatment. The understanding of concepts in transcultural psychiatry is crucial for psychiatrists in training in the UK, given the multicultural and multi-ethnic nature of UK society.

When given the thought of what a minority might be, someone will immediately address, Latinos, African-Americans, poor or disabled, however they usually leave Asians out. Even though Asians are the most considerable minority group, but are still being excluded from research, the media and mental health. Adding on, in mental health research, there exists selection bias where they randomly select people who are almost in good condition and are rich or middle class and tend to forget that there is diversity in the whole world. Apart from that, in Asian cultures there lies discrimination and prejudice towards mental disorders because of the generation gap between parents and their offspring. In addition, in certain Asian countries for example,

However, despite the growing recognitions in mental health services and increased awareness on consequences of psychological distress, students especially undergraduates with the highest levels of distress such as students who were vulnerable to suicidal behaviour was found to be the least likely group to seek professional help. (Calhoun & Selby, 1974; Morgan et al., 2003; Oliver et al., 1999). Besides that, Wilson (2010) found a significant inverse relationship between psychological distress such as depression and health seeking intentions, especially among undergraduates student, whereby the higher the general distress symptoms recorded, the weaker their intentions to seek assistance from both formal and informal help. Furthermore, a study conducted with Chinese undergraduates has found that the participants with elevated levels of depressive symptoms were the more reluctant group to find either formal or informal assistance, which was an effect of the more collectivist and self-reliance Chinese culture (Chang, 2014; Chiu,

cultural conflict with high degree of mental illness, anomie and delinquency. Robbins builds his case on the idea that adolescents’ good English learning can lead to good performance at school through learning from other peer formal language, adjust to social norms such as dress and behavior (Lum, 1993 cited in Henkin, Santiago, Sonkowsky, and Tunick 2000). Robbins’s findings show extra attention demand from the boys through misbehaving and requiring extra discipline in his own EAL class. Robbins (2004) also finds a great deal of classroom competition despite the collectiveness of the Vietnamese culture and the unit concept among families (Freeman, 1975-1995). Boys also argued more than girls with physical fighting. On the other hand, girls had more ability to learn through collaborative and cooperative assignment actions, whereas boys established and maintained relations through showing and demanding their own identity (Ellis 2004). Boys were also more assertive, while girls kept calm and spoke softly.

In China, there has been a stereotype towards attitudes of seeking psychological help between Americans and Chinese. Chinese people consider themselves tend to avoid psychological help. Whereas, they think Americans are highly open to seek mental health support. However, America’s mental health care may be not as perfect as Chinese people expected. For instance, one website shows that the USA has one of the worst mental health systems out of 16 industrialized countries (Rubenstein, 2013). On the other hand, in China, with the influence of westernization and economic development, the younger Chinese generation is becoming more educated and open-minded. Therefore, I want to investigate whether there are attitude differences towards psychological help seeking between Chinese and American college students. This study can provide an insight of whether the real situation is similar to the stereotype that Chinese people believe.

How Pacific Families influence the recovery process of those who seek services provided by Mental Health.