Ivy Kwong, licensed marriage and family therapist, joins Cheddar News to talk about the mental health stigmas within the AAPI community. 

Between Bells

Addressing Mental Health Needs of the AAPI Community 

Welcome back to Between bells everyone as hate crimes rise against asian americans, more people in the asian american and pacific islander community have reported anxiety and depression symptoms. Now, experts are calling, what's happening a mental health crisis joining us now is ivy, Quang licensed marriage and family therapist ivy, Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for sharing your perspective here. Can you walk us through exactly what api members and your clients are experiencing on a day to day basis? Of course, at this time there's definitely an increasing rate of anxiety and depression amongst the number of my clients. There are incredible stressors from what's been happening with the pandemic, the anti asian racist attacks and a number of factors that are now unable to be repressed and coming to the surface. So we know that the rise in ap I hate crimes is a factor in how people feel. But what role does the aftermath of the pandemic play when it comes to people's mental health ivy? I think at this point there have been so many folks who have been trying to function under the pressure of the model minority myth, which for many ap folks expecting asian americans to be able to function and be incredibly successful without with with great ease. And that is becoming increasingly difficult to uphold and probably for the best is that was never sustainable nor true. What are some major signs people should look for when it comes to their loved ones. If they are experiencing depression or anxiety withdrawal, there's going to be fewer interests and activities, there might be somatic issues like headaches or stomachaches uh, disinterest in, in things that they again, previously enjoyed and increasing rates of anxiety, nervousness, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Um, and really being mindful of these factors that it may show up differently in different people. Why do you think speaking about mental health is considered such a taboo in the api community? I'm south asian, and I realized this week that depression and anxiety didn't even exist in my language. And is it the same way? Why do you think there's such a taboo here? They're going to be such a cultural stigma when it comes to mental health, there can be not wanting to bring shame upon your family by admitting that something is not okay or that you're feeling things that you're not used to discussing. So many of our parents, especially Children of immigrants, have grown up in homes where they just had to survive and parents and families have had, have not been able to have conversations about mental health and there's often this, we don't talk about it if it's difficult, we just move forward. But so many of the things that are causing distress don't have the chance to be addressed. And so, and having more conversations about mental health, you can have the chance to heal ourselves and each other in the process. How do we shift that attitude towards mental health in the api community ivy, I think we're doing that right now. I think by being able to have conversations about it by being able to acknowledge our own journeys by being able to recognize that we can't keep functioning pretending everything is okay when it's not okay. And being able to have more awareness around the fact that mental health is so important, just as important as physical health, our emotional health and physical health are related and and tied to each other and you can't thrive in one without the other. There there's so much and interconnectedness. So according to the Asian American Psychological Association, I want to read these numbers for our viewers. 62% of Asian Americans diagnosed with a mental health condition needed help accessing services. What barriers are preventing people from getting access to that. There's first of all not very much awareness about how to find support. There also is a significant, unfortunately lack in an availability of folks who are trained to support a PM community and and their their mental health issues in particular. So finding cultural responsive culturally where culturally sensitive treatment is really challenging for folks who may not respond well to traditional Western methods of psychotherapy and healing. So what resources are out there dedicated for just this and the Api community ivy, I really recommend searching on the internet if you google asian american mental health resources or api mental health resources. You'll find a number of sources, There's asians for mental health dot com run by my friend and co worker, um jenny wang who actually wrote a wonderful book called permission to come home reclaiming health as asian americans. And I really recommend her book for anyone who is starting out on their journey of mental health and healing and wellness as part of the api community really helps us understand where we come from, from a culturally sensitive person. So to that point, how can we support each other through these challenging times? So a couple of different possibilities. Um, if you are someone who is not a member of the api community or even someone who is, and you see something happening, if you hear someone being called a racist uh slur or if you see something that's happened, one of the most powerful things you can do to help someone not internalize that trauma is to support them to realize that what happened was not okay and they're not alone. So if you just go up to them afterwards, be like, hey, I saw that happening, that was not okay, just checking in on them or if you're the person that's happened to immediately reaching out for support, hey, this thing just happened to me, can you just be with me? I'm feeling really scared and feeling really upset, just having someone to support you and witnessing what's happening and having that acknowledges not okay, can be really, really healing and helpful for those who have been impacted and supporting everyone in this time to just try and be more empathetic, kind and aware that we're all going through our struggles and to be aware of our own biases and to do our best to heal within so that we can heal us all. I think that is such a great advice. Thank you so much for coming on I. V. Quang licensed marriage and family therapist.