Mass Shooting: How to Support Older Asian Males in Our Community?
Recent mass shooting incidents have left our community shocked and saddened. As a multicultural clinic, we feel a strong sense of responsibility to support and help our community in any way we can. Our therapists have taken the initiative by hosting panel discussions, publishing relevant videos, and partnering with the Society of Heart's Delight, a local non-profit organization, to address the important topic of mental health.
Mental Health Statistics of Asian Americans and Immigrants:
The US Department of Health and Human Services reports that only 7% of Asian adults seek mental health services compared to 20% of non-Hispanic Whites. Additionally, Asian Americans have a lifetime rate of psychiatric disorders of over 17%, yet are three times less likely to seek mental health services, according to the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS).
Challenges Faced by Older Asian Males:
A 2020 study on a group of older Chinese immigrants living in New York found that the top causes of psychological distress included:
Breakdown of support systems
Language barriers
Financial hardships
These challenges can prevent older Chinese adult males from participating in community activities and accessing professional mental health services due to financial difficulties. Furthermore, the pressure to meet the "model minority" stereotype and cultural discrimination can make it difficult for Asian Americans to integrate into mainstream culture, balance their cultural identities, and meet family obligations, as noted by the University of Maryland School of Public Health (2007).
For example, due to language boundaries, some older Chinese adult males are unable to participate in some fun social activities, such as free TaiChi classes offered by the local community centers. Or, due to financial difficulties, they may not be able to afford mental health services even if they really could benefit from them.
Common Mental Health Stigmas of Older Asian Males:
Cultural barriers and negative stigmas surrounding mental health issues make it difficult for Asian Americans to discuss their symptoms. For example, some Asian immigrant males may grow up in traditional and conservative Chinese family culture, identify vulnerability as a shame, or suppress their feelings often.
Our therapist Ryan shared two important concepts in his video:
Minority Stress
The definition of Minority Stress is:
A high level of stress faced by members of stigmatized minority groups (Meyer, 2003).
First of all, as a minority, we experience a lot of different events that may not happen to the majority of people in America. Asian minorities face a wide range of challenges such as internalized racism, oppression, stereotypes, hate crimes, and fear of deportation.
Also, in Asian culture, we prefer compromises, we avoid face-to-face disagreement confrontations, and we try to avoid open discussion.
However, the longer we suppress our negative emotions, they will directly impact our physical and mental health such as heart disease, anxiety, depression, and other stress-related disorders and issues.
2. Vicarious/Secondary Trauma
Some people may call it secondary trauma:
The natural consequent behaviors resulting from knowledge about a traumatizing event experienced by a significant other (Fegley,1995) .
Trauma doesn't only apply to minorities, and we may all be impacted by it somewhat. Sometimes, we may experience trauma from witnessing or hearing about other people who are suffering, or tragedies such as recent shooting incidents.
Common warning signs of us experiencing secondary trauma may include: We have a lot of repetitive thoughts about the event, experiencing an increase of fear, may have nightmares, and our sleep patterns and appetites may change, etc.
The Community Resources & Public Education Program for Minority
1. What can you do for Self-Care?
If you notice you or your family members may experience a difficult time, we encourage you to consider the following coping strategies:
Actively participate in community activities and build your social support system.
Social media curfew. Life is not just like what the negative crime news described on social media. It is great to put down mobile phones and stay away from social media sometimes.
Move your body more. You can consider participating in more indoor or outdoor activities like Yoga, Tai Chi, English classes.
Explore mental health resources. There are some great books or free online educational videos, lectures, blogs about mental health topics if you prefer self-help methods. There are a lot of great free resources on each county’s website, or NAMI website.
2. What can we healthcare providers do?
Healthcare providers are a big part of the mental health services in the community. Sometimes, it may be helpful for older Asian adults to get mental health information and resources from their trusted family/friends, primary care physicians, or other healthcare providers they interact with.
Remember:
“Feeling stressed out doesn't mean you are crazy”!
We can always reach out to friends who are older Asian males near us and spread the word, to see whether they need a listener, support, or assistance. If each of us could educate ourselves, we may help the elders around us to fight social isolation.
There are books, podcasts, blogs and YouTube vedios for everyone in the community to learn some basic mental health knowledge, such as warning signs of pressure, anxiety, depression, etc. If we are able to educate ourselves, we may help identify when something seems not quite right or stop making the stigma even worse.
We need to be cautious, sometimes by saying “don’t worry, you think too much” or “everything will get better soon”, we are actually making someone’s symptoms worse. Rather than criticizing or comforting others when the elders share their feelings, we can try to show empathy to make them feel understood. For example, we can say something like: “That is really hard.” or “Anyone in your situation may feel so stuck/ lonely. I am very sorry to hear that.” When others feel they are understood and listened to, they may be more willing to consider helpful resources.
Although we may feel hopeless or fearful of the unpredictable gun violence right now, please remember, our mental health is in our control, what kind of resources we want to seek is in our control.
Hope you find this article helpful. Please feel free to let us know if you have any comments or thoughts.
Edited by Umi based on our videos in our “Mind Body Garden Psychology“ YouTube channel.
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