In 2014, the Asian American population accounted for nearly 5.4% of the total United States (U.S) population and is projected to increase to 9.3% by the year 2060.1 Currently, the cities with the largest populations of Asian Americans include the major metropolitan and surrounding areas of Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Honolulu.1 In this report, the Asian American population was defined as individuals who reported their race as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Asian Indian, Vietnamese, Filipino and/or other Asian to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010. As the second fastest-growing ethnic group in the U.S., appropriate outreach and access to health care services, such as mental health is more critical than ever. …show more content…
Important factors that may influence these areas include biological, behavioral, and environmental, as well as factors attributed to both cultural and societal barriers. These factors can create and expand gaps in literature, inadequacies in community outreach, and insufficient improvements in mental health care services.3 The U.S. Census Bureau currently projects the U.S. population to increase from 319 million to 417 million people between 2014 and 2016.1 Currently, the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 National Projections Report has put an emphasis on the rapid growth of the American population due to two factors; change in age structure and the shift of racial and ethnic compositions of the population.1 With a significant growth in the American population, health disparities in regards to race, ethnicity, gender, income and geographical location have risen tremendously, further creating a gap of health literacy.4 This gap in health literacy has created many potential problems in adequate
Asians are one of fastest growing minority groups in America today. During this century, various factors at home and abroad have caused people from Asia to immigrate to the United States for better or for worse. Due to these factors, Americans and American teachers, in particular, need to educate themselves and become aware of the Asian American students’ needs in terms of success and happiness. Before beginning my research, I felt I had an easy subject: studying Asian Americans in relation to their education in public schools. How simple! Everyone knows they are smart, hard working, driven to succeed in spite of their nerdish, geeky, non-athletic, broken-English stereotype. Of course they are
With this increased research and effort, Americans would be able to intervene and make positive impacts with the state, tribal, and local levels to best address health disparities and inequalities. In efforts to thwart ethnic and minority disparities, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) passed the HHS Disparities Action Plan in order to establish “a nation free of disparities in health and health care, (Cooper 97)” and to implement a series of priorities, strategies, actions, and goals to achieve this vision. States, local communities, private organizations, and providers have additionally engaged in efforts to reduce health disparities. With the HHS Disparities Action Plan, the Department continuously assess policies and programs on racial and ethnic health disparities, watching to see which policies make an impact on the level of health care received by minorities. Similarly, The Affordable Care Act (ACA) health coverage expansions significantly increase coverage options for low and moderate income populations and particularly benefit the “vulnerable populations.” The ACA also includes provisions to strengthen the safety-net delivery system, improve
This shows the economic state of Asian Americans and the support they actually need. According to report by Farah Z. Ahmed for the Center for American Progress last year, Ahmed shares that Asian Americans are actually one of the fastest-growing populations in poverty since the Great Recession that hit in 2011. In fact, 29.3 percent of Cambodians and 37.8 percent of Hmong live in poverty (Poon, 2016). In addition, Tang Director of Aging and Adult Services at Counseling and Referral Service shares that “A lot of time we Asian Americans suffer from being generalized as one group.. Pointing out that the umbrella term “Asian American” really encompasses 48 language groups.. The general public perceives [Asian as] high education, high achievement, model minority, therefore they do not have issues of poverty and homelessness.” Tang further studies the issue of how Asian Americans have the highest senior poverty rate and the affects it has on generations. However in the other hand, CNBC’s
The article Asian American Mental Health: What We Know And What We Don't Know by Stanley Sue was about Asian Americans and how they deal with their mental health. There are about 4% of Asians in the United States and because of this small percentage; it is hard for researchers to find people to help conclude their studies. What some have found out is that Asian Americans are offered mental health services but rarely use it. They find other ways such as asking their family for help or making an herbal remedy to help with their sickness. A researcher named Kuo has studies that show Asians are more depressed than Caucasians. According to a researcher named Leong the high depression rate is because Asians have problems with adjusting. I think what these researchers have studied is a great topic but it just needs more information. According to the article since it is such a low population of Asians in America it is hard to find people to do the research on. I think if they keep looking they can get more information about this topic.
The United States is a melting pot of cultural diversity. For a country that was founded by individuals fleeing persecution, it has taken us many years to grant African-Americans equal rights, and even longer for those rights to be recognized. Despite all the effort to eliminate inequality in this country, health disparity among this minority group remains a significant issue. Research in this area has pointed to several key reasons for this gap that center on differences in culture, socioeconomics, and lack of health literacy.
April is National Minority Health Month. Despite major advances in medicine, ever-evolving technology and more noteworthy access to medicinal services over the past century, there are tenacious disparities in health that disproportionally influence racial and ethnic minorities and other helpless populations.
Though Asians make up the largest portion of the world’s population, Asian-Americans are one of the least represented minority groups within the United States. Out of an estimated 318 million people living in the U.S., Asians account for 5.2%, or approximately 17 million people. Compared to Hispanics at 54 million and African-Americans at 42 million, Asians and/or Asian-Americans are vastly outnumbered by the two other major minority groups and even more so by the majority, European-Americans. Even though Asians are typically considered the “model minority”, they are faced with the same issues that plague many other minority groups within the U.S. today to include stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination and ethnocentrism. There has been a history of discriminatory national policies directed at the immigration of Asians to the U.S. and in times of duress, the labeling and targeted institutional discrimination of specific ethnicities of Asian-Americans as traitors based solely on country of origin and not on the deeds and actions of said U.S. citizens (Japanese internment camps of World War II).
Across the country, a steady increase has been noted in the number of patients presenting to emergency departments for psychiatric complaints (Zun, 2014). Patients also attempt to use their primary care doctors to treat their mental illnesses. The mental health care options for these patients are extremely limited, especially for minority populations such as African Americans and Hispanics. One out of four adults in America suffers from some form of mental illness, yet only one out of three of those affected receives treatment (Safran, 2009). Furthermore, patients are routinely misdiagnosed, receive poor quality of care, receive care from providers who have no understanding of their cultures and values, or are not even able to receive care in the first place (Sanchez, 2012).
This may seem beneficial for Asian Americans at first; however, the model minority myth is actually detrimental to many segments of the population. This is especially true of recent immigrant Asian Americans. These individuals become deprived of resources because they are expected to have the same level of success as Asian Americans who have already lived in the U.S. for generations. Even in academia, the model minority myth causes Asian Americans to be understudied and misunderstood. Because Asian Americans are perceived to be successful and well-integrated individuals, Lee et al. (2001) show how there is “not enough research” that investigates Asian American mental health (160). In other words, even though some current data show higher rates of mental illness among Asian Americans, the model minority myth has distracted scholars from studying Asian American mental health. Thus, to ensure that Asian
Mental health illnesses affect everyone. It is highly prevalent affecting people of all ages, gender, cultures, and social groups. Attitudes towards mental health illnesses vary among individuals and often are highly influenced by the various cultures that the individuals identify with. Culture as a social concept can be defined as a set of norms, values, behaviours, and beliefs that are common and shared amongst a group of individuals (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). Culture can be applicable to groups like Asians and Americans but also to groups of shared norms, beliefs, and values established within professions such as the culture of patients and practitioners. Culture provides these groups with structure and context to understanding their society and the world as a whole. Culture influence a wide range of aspects of mental health, including how mental health is perceived by the patient, how the patient will experience mental health stigma, and how they cope with symptoms of mental health illness. Additionally, these cultural influences impact the relationship between the patient and the practitioner in a number of ways.
Asian American parents believe in keeping many of their issue within the family which makes them reluctant to seek services. Because of this culture believe, Asian Americans utilize mental health services at a lower rate compared to other Americans (Sue, 1994). Socially sanctioned claims concerning Asian American's social character or integrity helps to explain why they don't utilize services as often as other Americans. Counselors can work to lessen the effects of racism and discrimination that have impacted Americans by expanding their knowledge of discriminations experiences of Asian American's and
The United States’ population is currently rising exponentially and with growth comes demographic shifts. Some of the demographics shifts include the population growth of Hispanics, increase in senior citizens especially minority elderly, increase in number of residents who do not speak English, increase in foreign-born residents, population trends of people from different sexual orientation, and trends of people with disabilities (Perez & Luquis, 2009). As a public health practitioner, the only way to effectively eliminate health disparities among Americans, one must explore and embrace the demographic shifts of the United States population because differences exist among ethnic groups (Perez, 2009). We must be cognizant of the adverse
One issue with underserved populations is an increase in health disparities, not only race and ethnicity, but also gender and age. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (2014) list a number of key findings from a report on underserved populations and health care. Mortality rates from certain diseases and different types of death were higher in different racial groups than Caucasians (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). Morbidity of asthma, oral disease, tuberculosis, obesity, and diabetes were also higher in minority groups (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). Preventive screening for the over-50 population was just over 60%
Mental health has been a recurring topic in present society and it is a very large section of health care in general. Health can be termed as an absence of disease, but it really is much more than that and should encompass every facet of the human, mind and body. The WHO defines mental health as a state of well-being in which an individual can function properly and productively, cope with life stressors, and contribute to community. Mental health is dependent on many factors, mainly social, biological, and psychological (WHO). A mental disorder is a condition of alterations
Is there a solution to this costly societal problem? The long-term solution rests in the hands of health education beginning in kindergarten and continuing throughout college. We need more community involvement with this issue. It not only affects the health illiterate but those that are very health literate. It raises the costs of health care enormously. Despite massive technological advances and that we spend twice as much per capita on healthcare in the United States, we remain one of the unhealthiest nations in the world. Low health literacy contributes to our grim future. We have high rates of infant mortality; increased mortality related to chronic, preventable disease processes; and cancer mortality could be greatly reduced by early detection.