Health Disparity Topic Selection and Analysis: Mental Health of the Asian-American Elderly
Mental Health of the Asian-American Elderly
Asian-Americans constitute an important racial/ethnic minority in the US. A few facts
that have been given by the US Census Bureau include:
• In 2011, the population of Asians with more than one race was estimated at 18.2 million.
• The referred population includes about 50 subgroups with reference to origins, diversity in culture, ethnicity, religious traditions, English proficiency, and geographical and immigration history
• The Asian population has been estimated to about 40.6 million by 2050.
• Most of the Asian population in the US is concentrated in the Western states of California and Hawaii.
(US Census Bureau, 2012).
Literature Review on the Asian-American Mental Health Status
A number of scholarly works have been implicated in the elderly Asian American mental health. Normal ageing could be assumed differently from people with dementia from the Asian origin creating stigmatization, aggravating severe chronic mental illness (Liu, et al., 2008). Asian immigrants with difficulty in English have made them prone to difficulties in communication creating disparities in the health status specially the mental health (Mui, et al., 2007). Recent elderly Asian immigrants have been experiencing acculturation stress, involuntary resettlement, and barriers in stereotypical intergenerational solidarity (Ng & Northcott, 2010). Education and self-efficacy had positive correlations with health promotion and mental well-being in Asian immigrants (Sohng, Sohng, & Yeom, 2002).
Analyses of Asian American Elderly
Population rise for the last 3 decades secondary to the im...
... middle of paper ...
... and Malays. International Journal
of Geriatric Psychiatry, 24(7), 723-730.
Sohng, K-Y., Sohng, S., & Yeom, H-A. (2002). Health promoting behaviors of elderly Korean
immigrants in the United States. Public Health Nursing, 19(4), 294-300.
Thomas, K. & Snowden, L.R. (2002). Differential response to health insurance: minority
response to health insurance coverage for mental health services. Journal of Mental
Health Policy and Economics, 4(1), 35-41.
Vega, W.A. & Lopez, S.R. (2001). priority issues in Latino mental health services research.
Mental Health Services Research, 3(4), 189-200.
CDC. (2008). The State of Mental Health and Aging in America. Retrieved from:
http://www.cdc.gov/aging/pdf/mental_health.pdf
US Census Bureau. (2012). The Asian Population: 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-11.pdf
Asma Awan.
Dr. Stanley Sue is an Asian American clinical psychologist whose research focus is on Asian American minorities. Dr. Sue was born in Portland, Oregon and was the third of six children to his Chinese immigrant parents. As a child “his first career ambition was to repair televisions, but soon he got bored with shop classes. Then, he developed great fascination with psychotherapy and the idea of helping emotionally disturbed individuals (Rockwell 2001).” Dr. Sue recalled, “I told my parents that I wanted to become a clinical psychologist, not fully knowing what a clinical psychologists did (Rockwell 2001).” He also remembered what his father said and thought after making this declaration: “My father, who was born in China, said, ‘What is that?’ He couldn’t believe that people would pay me to listen to their problems – indeed, he wondered if I could make a decent living (Rockwell 2001).”
Gilbert Wergowske, P. L. (2001, October 1). Health and Health Care of Elders from Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Backgrounds. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from Curriculum in Ethnogeriatrics: http://www.stanford.edu/group/ethnoger/
Ying, Y, & Han, M. (2007). The longitudinal effect of intergenerational gap in acculturation on conflict and mental health in Southeast Asian American adolescents. American journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77(1), 61-66.
Wong, Paul. “Asian Americans as a Model Minority: Self-Perceptions and Perceptions by Other Racial Groups” Gale Group. 1998. Web. 4 May 2014
The terms Asian American, Asian Pacific American, and Asian Pacific Islander are all used to describe residents of the United States, who themselves are from or their ancestors were from the Asian Pacific region of the world. “Although the term Asian American may bring to mind someone of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, or Asian Indian descent, the U.S. Census Bureau actually includes 31 different groups within the Asian Pacific designation (Sigler, 1998).” For example, someone from Guatemala, Cambodia, Samoa, Thailand, Laos, Hawaii, or Tonga would also fall into this category of being Asian American, even though ...
In this paper I will be sharing information I had gathered involving two students that were interviewed regarding education and their racial status of being an Asian-American. I will examine these subjects’ experiences as an Asian-American through the education they had experienced throughout their entire lives. I will also be relating and analyzing their experiences through the various concepts we had learned and discussed in class so far. Both of these individuals have experiences regarding their education that have similarities and differences.
According to Kramer (2002), Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the United States; growing from fewer than 1 million in 1960 to 7.2 million in 1990. But despite this ongoing rapid progression, Asian Americans have the lowest rate of utilization of any professional mental health related services than the general United States population (Tung 2011). To increase the utilization of mental health services among the Asian American community, the most hindering barriers that exist preventing Asian Americans in general from seeking out these services must be identified and explored. In spite of the fact that Asian Americans are viewed as the “model minority”, with high academic achievements and few mental/behavioral problems, studies
In Sherman Alexie’s novel Indian Killer, there are many characters who struggle with mental disorders. Alexie states “She was manic-depressive and simply couldn’t take care of herself,” this is just one of the mental illnesses suffered in the book (212). Mental disorders are prevalent in the United States. All races are at risk of mental illness. In the article "Mental Health and Substance Abuse Characteristics Among a Clinical Sample of Urban American Indian/Alaska Native Youths in a Large California Metropolitan Area: a Descriptive Study" Daniel Dickerson and Carrie Johnson state “AI/ANs [American Indians/ Alaska Native] between the ages of 15 and 24 have the highest suicide rates in the United States compared to other racial/ethnic groups” (Dickerson and Johnson, 56). Native Americans are highly perceptible to mental illness due to the historical trauma their culture has endured.
...as the largest racial ethnic group in California. It is projected that by the year 2016, 28 million Latinos will vote in the American elections. The Latino votes played a major role in the re-election of President Obama. Asians also supported the president’s re-election.
Phase I of HSU is not sensitive to ethnic differences that are associated with individuals’ situational or environmental components (Moon, Lubben, & Villa, 1998; Tan, 2009), because Phase I (like all other Phases of HSU) considered ethnicity as a simple predisposing demographic predictor. Most studies using HSU with diverse target populations (e.g., male and female veterans, American Indians, African Americans, or Asian immigrants) proposed that HSU has very limited generalizability, especially for ethnic minority populations (Bradley et al., 2002; Song et al., 2010). Integrating both universal factors and ethnic specific components may enhance the generalizability: some part should cover overall populations regardless of ethnicity or immigrant status of individuals, and the other part should cover unique elements associated with minority populations (Choi, 2011). However, none of the Phases of HSU have incorporated unique components such as acculturation for immigrant populations. Rather, the HSU explains a broad level of demographic (e.g., SES) and social factors (e.g., family or community resources) as predisposing or enabling factors of individuals. Researchers agree that Phase I is not sensitive to the diverse cultural and acculturation barriers/protectors in health care (Moon et al., 1998; Wallace, Levy-Storms, Kington, & Andersen, 1998). Andersen and colleagues (Andersen et al., 2011) also argued that despite the rapid growth of the Asian populations in the U.S., few studies determined cultural influences on Asian populations’ health behaviors or health outcomes. Therefore, it was essential to modify Phase I to investigate the relationships between acculturation and the healthcare utilization behavior of individuals (Choi, 2011). The acculturation measures were added to the predisposing
A survey completed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) in 2000 founded that five percent of the 12 million Asian Americans in the United States had used illegal drugs in the past 12 months. Three percent of those studies were found to meet the criteria for a substance use disorder (Fong MD & Tsuang MD MS, 2007, p. 52). Fong Md and Tsuang MD MS state “There are some unique biopsychosocial aspects of the addictive disorders that impact the Asian American (AAPI) population. In regards to specific data, the most appears to be available in the area of alcohol and much less is available in regards to drugs...
Asian Americans have been more active and involved in politics over the past decade. Furthermore, Asian Americans increasingly became more visible in politics extending beyond the city limits. While in many major cities such as Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City remain packed and serve as a gateway for Asian Americans immigrants. A majority of the United States Asian American population has now moved into the Suburbs. This serves as a part of reaching the American “Dream”. The dream is to own a house in the suburbs with a pool and picket fence. Once a person obtains this status, they are seen as making it in America. Between 2000 and 2010, Asian American population growth in the suburbs reached 1.7 million, which was nearly four times the growth during the same period for those Asian Americans living in central cities. Approximately 62 percent of the U.S. Asian American population is situated in the suburbs. In California, The San Francisco and Los Angeles metro area contain the most diverse Asians in the whole America. The city and state is known for their diversity in many ethnic groups. The variation of Asian Americans is broking down into large numbers of Filipinos (27%), Chinese (26%), Asian Indians (11%), Japanese (9%), and Koreans (8%) . For Asian Asians, this sets up a perfect situation for political power or might. With population numbers being so high, incorporation efforts in these cities and suburbs in only feasible.
Asian Americans have higher insulin resistance and the lowest insulin sensitivity than other ethnic populations in the United States.
Nadal, Kevin L. Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. 9, 21. Print.
Lee, Peter . 2000. "The conception of depression in Chinese American college students." Cultural Diversity and Ethnic minority Psychology 6: 183-195.