Mental Health Awareness Month
What is Mental Health Awareness Month?
Mental Health Awareness Month is held every May to raise awareness about mental health, educate the public, fight stigmas, provide support to those who suffer from mental illnesses, and advocate for policies that support those with mental illness and their families. The 2022 theme is "Together for Mental Health," which aims to amplify voices that advocate for mental health.
While this topic is becoming less stigmatized, mental health is still being researched, and the general public often holds many misconceptions about it. During this month, it is important to take care of oneself, encourage seeking help when it is needed, and learn how to best support those around us!
How Can We Define "Mental Well-Being?"
Mental well-being is defined as "the state in which people have the capability to realize their own abilities, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and be able to contribute to their community." Mental well-being does not mean that a person does not experience mental illnesses or unpleasant experiences, but rather that they have healthy coping mechanisms and support systems to deal with these issues, should they arise.
Certain factors that contribute or affect mental well-being include, but are not limited to, access to resources; access to mental health services; a social support system; feelings of safety in one's environment; personal stress management techniques; and having a cultural, spiritual, or religious belief system.
How Does Mental Health Awareness Month Relate to AAPI Heritage Month?
For many AAPI children with immigrant parents growing up in America, the topic of mental health may be difficult to bring up for many reasons. For one, mental health is a recent topic and is more of a Western concept. Therefore, immigrant parents may not have had exposure to the subject before. Because of this, they may only know of extreme examples of mental illnesses and refrain from talking about them due to stigmas they may hold. In addition, many of these parents faced hardships while immigrating to another country, finding a job, housing, and schools for their children. Mental health may have rarely been a priority to them because everything else was essential for survival. Finally, the idea of "losing face" in AAPI culture, and the model minority myth perpetuate stereotypes of perfection that AAPI people feel they must uphold.
The idea of "face" in AAPI culture is similar to the idea of reputation. A lot of AAPI cultures stress outward appearances and hide personal struggles beneath a mask meant for the public. The model minority myth is also a misconception that AAPIs are a monolith of successful, intelligent people without paying attention to what differentiates individuals from each other. Both of these ideas put pressure on AAPI individuals, especially younger ones, to hide their true emotions for fear of being judged or ridiculed.
Because there are unfair, lofty expectations of how these students should perform, many of them feel pressure to conform to that stereotype, even if they do not personally believe in it. Thus, the topic of mental health in the AAPI community may be a difficult conversation but a crucial one.
What are Some Systemic Barriers to Seeking Care?
AAPIs have the lowest help-seeking rate of any racial/ethnic group. Although some of this is due to cultural barriers, some of these obstacles are systemic in nature. Language barriers are a major issue for those not fluent in English seeking help. Overall, 32.6 percent of AAPI Americans are not fluent in English and 60 percent of AAPIs aged 65 years and older have limited English proficiency. There is also a large population of AAPIs with insufficient health insurance coverage, with Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) populations having an uninsured rate of 9.3 percent and Asian Americans having an uninsured rate of 6.8 percent. In addition, some AAPI immigrants may not seek necessary mental health care due to fears of jeopardizing their immigration status or citizenship application process. Thus, even if some AAPI individuals wanted to seek help, they may be prevented from doing so for other reasons.
How are AAPI Young Adults Impacted by Mental Health Issues?
The rate of serious mental illnesses in AAPI people has risen from 2.9 to 5.6 percent in people aged 18–25 between 2008 and 2018. The rates of major depressive episodes; suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts; and unhealthy habits like binge drinking, smoking, illicit drug use, and prescription pain reliever misuse are also on the rise and often accompany those suffering from mental illnesses.
As of 2020, 6.1 percent of the United States population identifies as AAPI. Of those 2.9 million people, almost 15 percent reported having a mental illness in the past year. Although the rates of mental illnesses are rising, specifically in the AAPI population, the aforementioned obstacles to seeking or even having access to mental healthcare have prevented many from receiving help, which just perpetuates the cycle of silent suffering.
What are Some Ways That College Students Can Get Involved and Be Better Allies?
Although raising awareness about the topic of mental wellness is great, people often do not know where to start. To start advocating and taking care of others, we must first practice what we preach. Simply put, we can start practicing our own self-care, using the resources we have. Not only does this help us reach a state of mental well-being, but it also gives us a sense of awareness beyond just being an ally to others by applying our advice to our own lives.
Some of this can include setting boundaries for yourself and making a set schedule to follow. We can also start by informing ourselves about mental health and what it may look like, researching and sharing mental health resources that would be helpful.
Sources
https://www.nami.org/Get-Involved/Awareness-Events/Mental-Health-Awareness-Month
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-mental-health-awareness-month-may/
https://nextshark.com/asian-parents-mental-health/
https://www.mhanational.org/issues/asian-americanpacific-islander-communities-and-mental-health
https://campushealth.tulane.edu/content/mental-well-being
Also, a big thanks to Tulane Campus Health for collaborating with us and sharing resources!