Cultural Influences on Mental Health Issues in The Asian-American Population
The population of Asian Americans in the United States seems to be rapidly increasing. They are the most diverse group found in America, which can be further divided into a minimum of 43 ethnic groups. They are capable of speaking at least a hundred languages and even more dialects. They possess a variety of rich cultures, practices, and beliefs which are quite different from white Americans (Leong & Lau, 2001). In the 1960s, the Asian American population was stated to be only 0.5 percent of the total American population, i.e. around one million. It increased to more than 10 million by 2000, i.e., 3.7 percent of the total United States’ population. The number is even expected to rise more and double by the year 2025. For decades, Asian Americans are believed to suffer from various mental and emotional health issues. Certain cultural factors influence the whole health belief system of the Asian community. It affects the way mental disorders are diagnosed and treated. However, these factors might vary further within each ethnic group. But in this paper, the light will be shed upon some of the key cultural factors that influence the mental health issues of the Asian American community.
The key cultural elements that have an impact on the mental health of Asian Americans include language, level of acculturation, age, gender, occupational issues, family structure, spirituality, and religious beliefs.
The adaptation of the English language and the level of acculturation influence the access to care. Asian languages and their dialects are quite different and are not understood outside their groups. It usually takes 3 generations for Asian communities to adopt a western lifestyle and culture. This resistance to the adaptation of western culture affects their mental health and makes it difficult for them to switch to western medical care from their traditional methods. The age of the immigrants also influences how quickly they will adjust to the western lifestyle. The younger the person, the more adaptive he is. Gender is another factor that matters here. Mostly, a higher degree of acculturation is observed in men rather than women. High-skilled immigrants are not able to get high wage jobs and return back to their original careers, here in the United States, due to language and license verification problems. This also becomes the cause of mental stress. They have to start by working as drivers or dishwashers in restaurants. The religious beliefs of some Asian communities are contradictory to some of the western health care methods. Thus, they show resistance in adapting them (Kramer, Kwong, Lee, & Chung, 2002).
One of the major problems is that Asians believe that the mind and body is a single unit. Thus, they tend to focus on physical discomfort rather than emotional problems. Also, they prefer using their traditional methods for the treatment rather than moving towards the newly developed and advanced techniques. The misdiagnosis of mental diseases is another problem as Asian Americans possess unique behaviors towards psychotropic. Thus, proper research is required in this area.
Asians cover almost half of the total Earth’s population. With the continuing advances in the technology of communication, mental disorders are expected to grow to an even more increased scale. While keeping in mind the number of Asians in the world, their perception and way of dealing with the mental health issues highly need to be taken into consideration. Understanding the mental disorders that Asian community usually faces and suffers from and their traditional ways of treating them are quite important. The Asian Americans are mostly immigrants. Thus, it makes sense that their cultural traits, as well as the mental health issues they face, would be quite similar to those of actual Asian communities (Lin & Cheung, 1999).
Although Asian Americans convey a sense of heterogeneity, i.e. they possess various distinct languages, cultures, traditions, and practices, but despite all that, these cultures are quite intermixed and have been in exchange for numerous generations. However, all of them widely differ from the western community. Their concepts of self, relationships with social groups and the idea of body and mind are quite different. These differences affect their psychiatric symptoms, their recognition, their mental health care methods and even their response to mental diseases. Research proves that Asians require different treatment and psychotropic medications from western communities due to both environmental and genetic reasons. Western treatment can have various side effects on them (Lin & Cheung, 1999).
It is said that historical events and cultures are the two factors that play the most significant role in shaping the mental health of any ethnic group. The way the people of the particular group will express and recognize psychiatric problems highly depend on them. Mental illness is long associated with shame and stigma in Asian communities. People are considered unsuitable for marriage if mental illness existed in any one of their family members. This unacceptability in society led patients to hide their mental diseases out of embarrassment and fear (Willen, Good, Hannah, Vickery, & Park, 2011).
The rate of Asian Americans reaching the mental health care systems is very low as compared to other minorities that exist in the United States. Previous research stated that this might be because Asians Americans are emotionally quite stable despite all the discrimination and advertise, they get to face in the country. But recent studies conclude statements contradictory to it. It has now been suggested the rate is not low due to the emotional stability of the Asian community, but because they do not utilize the resources and mental health care services. They often reach the clinics quite late when their mental conditions have gotten up to the extreme stage, and it is quite difficult to help them. Various mental health programs have now been set up the United States, including Los Angeles, Portland, New York, Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco, especially for Asian Americans. Bicultural and bilingual professionals are hired there to cover all the different Asian languages and cultures. These systems have gotten quite successful in improving the mental health of the Asian community in America, and the rate of Asians showing up at mental health clinics for treatment has been observed to increase (Lin & Cheung, 1999).
One of the organizations that were set up to raise awareness about mental health issues among Asian Americans is National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association, also known as NAAPIMHA. It is a nonprofit organization located in California, whose goal is to promote the well-being of Asian American communities throughout the United States. They have been working with other organizations that address similar issues to develop one statewide consumer network. They assist mental health care service providers, including interpreter training, cultural competency and clinical training Mental Health fact sheets have been developed in various Asian languages such as Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Khmer, and Hmong. They have been working to prevent suicide among young people, empower mental health consumers and to provide people with mental health-related services at affordable prices (Devkota, 2018).
Despite the increase in the availability of mental health services, certain issues remain in the correct diagnosis of mental diseases. It is because the western mental health care system lies in the theories of nosology and etiology which have been mostly derived from the clinical work done by North American and European patients. Their culture is entirely different from Asian American culture, and their minds operate in quite different ways. Thus, they are not effective for people with ethnic backgrounds. This led to misdiagnosis and ineffectiveness of assessment tools of one culture into another (Lin & Cheung, 1999).
A new report was launched by the Centre for American Progress that made suggestions on how lawmakers or leaders can help the Asian American community to get better access to the mental health-related services. There exist various misconceptions about this community that they are either monolithic or quite wealthy. In both cases, they do not require help. Disaggregate data is the reason that led to such misconceptions.
Lawmakers should not rely on this health data and make use of sufficient new data to craft another health policy. The high costs and lack of access to these services is another issue. Only one in three Asian Americans suffering from depression can see a doctor due to their high rates. Plus, the policies for immigrants create another barrier for minorities to access reasonable mental health services. Thus, certain changes should be made in immigration policy as well. Lawmakers can issue certain new policies that will be of great help regarding this issue such as eliminating under-insurance, guaranteeing universal coverage and expanding coverage for immigrants. Free access to mental health care systems should be provided. Furthermore, professionals should be trained to bridge the biggest gap between white Americans and Asian Americans that is language (Lum, 2018).
In the end, after the analysis of the whole paper, it is concluded that the issues associated with the Asian community in the United States are quite complex. The higher rate of mental disorders that are found in Asian Americans is based on certain historical events. The effects of discrimination and racism, immigration and refugee experiences, the difference in language and culture and adaptation problems; all of them have led to certain psychiatric problems for them. Also, there exists a lack of mental health care services for them in the country, and that too is very expensive.
References
Devkota, R. (2018, February 5). 4 Organizations Fighting for the Mental Health of Asian Americans. https://studybreaks.com/news-politics/asian-american/
Kramer, E. J., Kwong, K., Lee, E., & Chung, H. (2002). Cultural factors influencing the mental health of Asian Americans. Western Journal of Medicine, 176 (4), 227-231.
Leong, F. T., & Lau, A. S. (2001). Barriers to Providing Effective Mental Health Services to Asian Americans. Mental Health Services Research, 3 (4), 201-214.
Lin, K.-M., & Cheung, F. (1999). Mental Health Issues for Asian Americans. Psychiatric Services, 50 (6), 774-780.
Lum, L. (2018, October 16). Report Puts Focus on Mental Health Services for Asian Americans. https://diverseeducation.com/article/129546/
Willen, S. S., Good, M.-J. D., Hannah, S. D., Vickery, K., & Park, L. T. (2011). Shattering Culture: American Medicine Responds to Cultural Diversity. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
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