Mental Health Implications of COVID-19 on Asian Americans
- Hi Neighbors
- Jan 19, 2021
- 3 min read
Photo by Myriam Zilles on Unsplash
As the coronavirus continues to ravage across the United States, now contributing to just under 400,000 deaths (as of January 2021), another health toll is taking a hit on a select group of Americans. Since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus as a worldwide pandemic back in March 2020, Asians have faced much discrimination in this country. This is evidenced by the fact that a nongovernmental reporting center, called the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, documented 1,135 cases of hate crimes and discriminations in the first two weeks. Experiencing discrimination can exacerbate already underlying mental health struggles for Asian Americans, who are simultaneously dealing with caring for the sick and battling food and resources insecurity. This blog will delve into how exactly discrimination impacts mental health, and from there, we’ll take a closer look at some of the initiatives that can be taken to help care for Asian Americans.
Racial discrimination and harassment have been shown in studies to be correlated with mental health struggles such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression for all minority groups, but this speaks especially true for Asian Americans during current times. They are continuously made to feel inferior and “other than,” and many people distance themselves from Asian Americans for fear of them being contagious. The societal implications are seen from the obstacles to student re-entry and job re-entry for Asian Americans, furthering isolating this demographic from the mainstream. As they are ostracized from society, many succumb to psychological struggles, but the predicament is that not many are willing to seek out psychological help from therapists or psychiatrists due to a cultural stigma both from within the demographic and externally from culturally insensitive healthcare workers.
The first goal that is needed to help ease Asian American mental health challenges is to use the media to challenge racial bias and stereotypes. Particularly, we must show stereotypes to be atypical representations of Asian Americans and that Asian Americans are not more likely to be carriers of the coronavirus, and that there is no difference between them and the rest of society. For example, the First Lady of New York City has already released a video statement on Twitter to urge solidarity with those of Asian descent and to show them working on the frontlines. Positive mass media campaigns can certainly eradicate existing stigma, and there are various ways in which such messages can be propagated. For instance, social media campaigns have been shown to be effective in pushing back against misinformation.
Direct approaches to helping Asian Americans ease their mental health symptoms can involve something as simple as community building, whereby neighbors gather together to speak up about personal struggles via team-building activities such as games. Studies have found that it just takes a couple of brave people to speak up about their own struggles for others to realize that they are not alone, and that is powerful in tearing down facades and walls. We can also encourage more Asian Americans to consider a profession in the mental health field so that other Asian Americans can have professionals who truly understand their hardships.
This is not a one-sided issue but through direct approaches to dealing with this societal problem, we can certainly bring down the level of pain Asian Americans are facing.
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