Three commonly known barriers prevent more people from getting mental health treatment: lack of accessibility, lack of affordability, and lack of availability. These are similar for Asian Americans and BIPOC alike. However, for Asian American Mental Health in particular, there is one more unspoken barrier that prevents them from treating mental health challenges: lack of acceptability.
Lack of Mental Health Accessibility
For Asian Americans in particular, lack of accessibility refers to the difficulty with finding mental health care that’s accessible for Asian Americans who don’t speak English and need health care professionals who can speak their Asian language. Lack of affordability refers to how expensive health care is, not only for the uninsured but also how often health insurance does not provide adequate ongoing coverage for treating mental health. Lack of availability means that even if someone was able to find care and could afford care, a provider may not be accepting new clients, or the wait list could be months long. I know that from first-hand experience when I needed to get psychiatric care, and I had to wait more than two months for someone in network with my insurance.
Asian American Mental Health: Lack of Acceptability
Broadly speaking, Asian Americans have an extra mental health barrier with the lack of acceptability, because we have a cultural influence that does not accept the medical advances in psychology and psychiatry. Some Asian languages don’t even have the vocabulary or terminology for emotional and mental wellness. These alarming statistics indicate the dire need for better Asian American mental health:
- Asian Americans are the least likely to seek professional mental health treatment of any racial-ethnic grouping (Mental Health America)
- Asian American young adults are the only racial group with suicide as their leading cause of death (CDC)
- The Chinese language has 113 terms related to shame. That’s more words than Eskimos have for snow.
Breaking these barriers to mental health for Asian Americans is hard and slow work, and that can be discouraging and daunting. But for those of us in Christ, we have the faith and hope to find our strength in God’s Spirit to push back the darkness and shine a brighter light.
Breaking the Barrier of Acceptability
To break the barrier of acceptability, we can stop stigma and erase shame by breaking the silence about mental health in our everyday conversations in person and online. Institutional change and producing documentaries and conferences are expensive projects to pull off, and they’re needed, but there are things we can do without a big budget. It just takes faith and courage.
Something I’ve been a part of in the past five years is co-hosting the Erasing Shame podcast. According to best-selling author Brené Brown, shame festers in silence. The opposite of that is to have healthy and honest conversations. Sometimes, these are conversations with ordinary people because each and every one of them is made in the image of God and has a story to tell. Occasionally, we also have experts and professionals come on our podcast to share practical insights from their work as well as their own lived experiences. This simple premise has been our guiding light to keep on speaking the truth in love and helping people to know that it is okay to have mental health struggles, they’re not alone, it’s okay to get help, and there is hope.
Faith and Mental Health
An even more powerful way that we can bear witness to God’s love for each of our lives is how the church talks about mental health. Churches have this opportunity to be truly a sanctuary and safe place for people who are hurting and struggling to come and find rest, care, and support. Unfortunately, not every church has recognized how mental health is not just something we can pray away. Yes, we can, should, and must pray for those who are struggling, and we can use all the wisdom and resources that God has given us in evidence-based solutions with psychology and psychiatry to care for the whole person.
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). As fellow believers, we are the Body of Christ, and we can be His hands and feet to bring empathy, comfort, hope, and healing as others struggle in their mental health.
How do we do this? I’ve put together a simple framework for churches to develop their mental health ministry. Churches can care for those who struggle with mental health by consistently doing these five things: sermons, stories, seminars, support groups, and sabbath. Why these 5? Sermons stop stigma. Stories to erase shame. Seminars educate everyone. Support groups care for the hurting. The Sabbath gives us a healthy pace of rest and work.
Thank you for reading this. I’d love to hear from you about making mental health more readily accessible, available, and acceptable to people everywhere. Feel free to contact me at djchuang.com/contact.
Sermons stop stigma.
Stories to erase shame.
Seminars educate everyone.
Support groups care for the hurting.
The Sabbath gives us a healthy pace of rest and work.
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Bio
DJ Chuang is Executive Director of Catalyst Wellness Alliance, a nonprofit ministry that’s hosting a community for Asian American pastors, clinicians, academicians, denominations, and nonprofits to generously share learnings, resources, and partnerships so we can together bring more hope and healing to many more. DJ also authored the book, “MultiAsian.Church: A Future for Asian Americans in a Multiethnic World,” and actively connects with church leaders via social media and blogging at djchuang.com. Currently, he lives in Orange County, California.
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