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Implications of stigma to sufferers of mental health
Essays about mental health stigma
Essays about mental health stigma
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Recommended: Implications of stigma to sufferers of mental health
Pauline Ng
Ascend: A mental health service organization dedicated to serving Asian American College Students in the Southern California Area
Addressing the need
Major depression (MDD) among college students is a growing public health concern. It is estimated that 15% of the college student population in the United States struggle with depressive illnesses. Asian Americans represent one of the fastest growing racial and ethnic group in the United States. However, compared to other ethnic groups, Asian Americans are much less likely to seek mental services. Only 8.6% of Asian Americans use mental health services. (Young)Among Asian Americans diagnosed with any depressive disorder, two out of three (69%) did not seek mental health treatment,
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Regarding cultural barriers, the stigma surrounding mental illness result in placing mental health services as the last option. The Asian American community is often reluctant to talk or express feelings. The fear of losing respect and bringing dishonor to the family in all aspects of life is largely centered in Asian culture. The concept of losing face or bringing shame is a huge faux pas because it requires admitting the existence of a mental health problem. (Weng) Individual achievements are failures are reflected on the family. (Botha) Moreover, Asian Americans may experience pressures that derives from unrealistic parent expectations and the conflict between traditional and modern values. (Young) The goals of the individual are subordinate to goals of the family and they are expected to conform to stereotypic family …show more content…
Target population
The target population is geared towards Asian Americans college students enrolled in the University of California system. The state of California has the second largest population of Asian American population, making up 13.4% of the state population. Southern California region is home to the second largest concentrations of Asian students in the country. One in ten students in the southern California region is of Asian descent. (Kusera) Asian American constitute more than 40% of the undergraduates at UCLA and Berkeley. (Brydolf)
Ascend directly targets several California communities are characterized as linguistically isolated meaning that they do not have anyone 14 years old or older who is fluent in English. For instance, in El Monte, a southern California city, half the Asian households are considered linguistically isolated. (Brydolf) Additionally, many Asian American UC students are first generation college students.
According to the CDC, Asian Americans ages 15-24 have significantly higher suicide rates than other groups. (Pong) Thus, targeting Asian American college students will be the most
Correspondingly, Limerick goes into a substantial amount of detail and evidence for each group. When discussing the Asian Americans, Limerick notes that they were predominantly located in the state of California and were seen as a problem. California government, society and culture were fearful of the effects they were to have on American growth and ideas. Overall, based upon something that Limerick notes, it is very obvious that almost all of society were in favor of Chinese exclusion, 150,000 to 900 (p.
Culture is a collection of religion, traditions, and beliefs that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture is created and maintained through the repetition of stories and behavior. It is never definite because it is continuously being modified to match current trends, however, historical principles are still relevant. With respect to mental illness, culture is crucial to how people choose to deal with society and the methods used to diagnose and cope with mental illnesses. In Watters’ The Mega-Marketing Depression of Japan, he focuses on how Japan and other cultures define depression, but also displays how the influence of American treatments in eastern countries eventually becomes the international standards. Even though the
The dominant biomedical model of health does not take into consideration lay perspectives (SITE BOOK). Lay perspectives go into detail about ordinary people’s common sense and personal experiences. A cultural perspective, like the Hmong cultures perspective on health, is considered a lay perspective. Unlike the Hmong culture, where illness is viewed as the imbalance between the soul and the body, the dominant biomedical model of health views health in terms of pathology and disease (SITE THE BOOK). Although the Hmong culture considers spiritual and environmental factors, the dominant biomedical model of health only looks at health through a biological perspective, and neglects the environment and psychological factors that affect health. Depression in the U.S. is a medical illness caused by neurochemical or hormonal imbalance and certain styles of thinking. Depression is the result of unfortunate experiences that the brain has difficulties processing (SITE 7). Unlike the Hmong culture, where Hmong’s who are diagnosed with depression report the interaction between a spirit, people diagnosed with depression in the Western culture report themselves to having symptoms such as feeling tired, miserable and suicidal (SITE
“Ernest Koenigsburg, a Berkeley professor of business…asks us to imagine a student applicant with a high school grade point average of 3.5 and a Scholastic Aptitude test score of 1200. “For a black student…the probably of admission to Berkeley is 100 percent.” But if…the student is Asian American… “The probability of admission is less than 5 percent.” Koenigsburg…is satis...
In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American, I have faced the same issues that the daughter has been through in the story.
Mental illness is an addition to all of the previously listed perceived disadvantages of Native Americans by those of other ethnicities. Many believe that Native Americans are at a higher risk for mental illness than those of European descent. Many also believe that Native Americans have more people suffer from depression than their white counterparts (Stark & Wilkins, American Indian Politics and the American Political System, 2011). There have been studies conducted to test whether or not this is the case, with mixed results. Some studies say that Natives are at a higher risk and others say they are not. This discrepancy makes the answer unclear. If Natives are actually at a higher risk for and have more people suffering from depression than individuals of European descent, the question to ask is, “why?” Several factors play into depression and other mental illness, including biology, social standing, history, family, and any preexisting/comorbid diseases that could contribute to or cause depression.
However, Asians are rapidly becoming a greater force in American culture as the proportion of educated Asian-Americans rises. Despite small numbers, they begin to have more and more influence in the business and professional worlds as well as academics. They are an interesting group, however, caught between two extremely different cultures as they seek to strike a balance between the ideals of their parents and the world they live in.
Due to the Chinese belief that mental illness is remarked as forbidden, individuals attempt to hide this fact to protect their integrity. Coupled with the actuality that this stigmatized illness will lead to abandonment by friends and society at large, it is kept a secret rather than seeking medical support. According to Abdullah & Brown (2011), the Chinese culture keen importance on harmony and communal strength affects their view of mental health which can be perceived strange. These habitual notions of passionate proclamation, personal attainment and prosperous social endowment, to name a few, continues to dominate and influence the psychological cause to request mental healthcare.
However, as the Asian American community consists of many different nations and cultures in itself, it has some very unique and diverse characteristics. This diverse nature of the population and many underlying risk factors make it challenging to develop effective outreach
The Misrepresentation of Asian Americans In today’s transnational and global age, many nations have encouraged the immigration of highly skilled and affluent workers from other countries to help further develop their own country. The United States was one of the first countries to seek further economic development from highly skilled immigrants with the Immigration Act of 1965. This was a significant moment for immigrants from Asia, Mexico, and Latin America as other exclusion acts favored immigrants coming from the western nations. However, with the Immigration Act of 1965, Asian Americans had the freedom to once again enter the United State, but soon faced persecution and quickly fell victim to discrimination.
By not having ready access to a physician of any sort, receiving help is harder than ever. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention as of February 2015 18.9% of the Latino population under 65 years of age were uninsured compared to the 7.4% for non-Latinos (“Access to Healthcare”). Without that knowledge available through a physician the cycle of lack of knowledge would continue. Although even with access to healthcare, many people feel the pressure from the outside, so they do not bring up mental issues to their doctor. The National Alliance on Mental Health found that only 20% of Latinos with symptoms of a psychological disorder talk to a doctor about their concerns, and only 10% contact a mental health specialist (“Latinos & Mental Health”).
Starting off with the very first factor, educational attainment. This is a major impact on what kind of people we meet during our lifetime course. According to the US Census in 1990, about 2/3 of Asian Americans were more likely to have completed college. This significantly shows that Asian Americans were fairly focused on studies and considered education to be a priority. Not only are Asian Americans categorized as the model minority within the US, but also as mentioned by Qian, “members of racial minorities with greater educational attainment are likely to be more successful at merging into the socioeconomic mainstream.”
people suffer from depression, trauma because of discrimination faced and the cultural difficulties, it seems clear that those are the major causes of mental health issues. In the article “Community mental health allies: Referral behavior among asian american Immigrant christian clergy,” Yamada, Lee, and Kim argue that mental health resources are underutilized among Asian-Americans, because of cultural attitudes. "Lack of access, high regard for one’s social status, and stigmatized attitudes that reflect negatively on the patient, family, and entire social network may contribute to a tendency for Asian American immigrants to seek help from family and community support systems in lieu of specialty community mental health care services” (Yamanda,
Instead, the illness label is used as an explanation for a variety of troubles.” From our survey, 11% of people knew what culture-bound syndrome was. This demonstrates that not many people are aware of the mental issues of one’s