11/05/2021
Stigma about mental health is big in immigrant communities: you’re not alone
Felista A. Anugom has a Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) and is a Board Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at Prudent Telepsychiatry Care. www.prudenttelepsychiatry.com
I came to the United States at the age of twenty. My parents, both from Nigeria, were driven to flee their home country and everything they knew in order to provide a better life for their three children.
For the first years of our lives here, I barely saw both parents together. They took work wherever and whenever they found it; still, each, in his or her way, drilled into us the key to success – good education, hard work and God. Our family lived amidst other immigrants, and we were bound by our common purpose. My focus was to make my parents proud by achieving success. Despite my great aspiration and inspiration, our lives in the U.S. were not an easy one. What I remember most vividly of our lives in the years following our move to the U.S. is the loneliness—going a whole school day without anyone saying a word to me or my uttering a word, sitting alone in a crowded lunchroom and the playgrounds were the only games I ever played were in my head.
Occasionally in our community, someone’s child, mother, father or relative exhibited what I now know are signs of mental illness. Even as a child, I recognized the stigma -- the whispers, the hushed tones when that person was discussed, the shame that their immediate family carried.
Our community viewed anyone who suffered from mental health infirmities as wanting, weak and incapable of handling his issues. It was a common belief that people can generally handle their own issues and did not need others’ intervention.
So, I grew up knowing that the topic of mental health was never to be discussed, at least not in public. But I watched people, including those close to me, suffer alone through the years.
My Nigerian community is not alone in our attitudes towards all mental health related issues. Studies show that Hispanics, Blacks, and “other” ethnic/racial groups were between 40 and 50 percent less likely to seek mental health treatment than non-Hispanic whites.
Immigrants make up a large portion of individuals living in the United States. Per recent statistics, greater than 40 million people living in the U.S. are foreign born, accounting for 13.7% of the U.S. population. With this figure, the United States is regarded as the country with the highest number of immigrant population in the world. Just like myself and with some other immigrants, cultural and linguistic barriers, separation from family and adjustment to a new, and sometimes unreceptive, environment, are stressors capable of affecting mental health. Irrespective of the severity of the mental health problem arising from these stressors, most immigrants are non-receptive to using mental health services. Rather, they rely much on social support for their mental health needs, often turning first to friends, family, or religious leaders. These were regular occurrences that I observed in immigrant communities while working as a nurse practitioner, and within my community as well.
Though there are existing disparities in access to mental health services among minority groups, these are further amplified by factors such as distrust of healthcare providers, lack of access to mental health services, reluctance to discuss psychological distress, financial factors, cultural identity, and poor communication between service users and providers. As such, poor access to mental health care has made securing an appointment with a mental health provider difficult, leading to underdiagnosed mental health conditions.
As a healthcare advocate, delivering culturally sensitive care has always been my professional philosophy. Thus, to address the need for mental health providers and reduce the health disparity stemming from it, I decided to build the necessary credentials to help in providing that support.
Overall, improved mental health treatment among minorities can be achieved through providing access to mental health care. Proper attention should be paid to the behavioral and mental health needs of racial and ethnic minorities. This can be achieved by providing linguistically and culturally appropriate mental health care in minority communities through partnership and collaboration among community leaders, mental and behavioral health providers, physicians, government agencies, educators, and families to facilitate evidence-based prevention and early intervention.
Prudent Telepsychiatry Care puts you in contact with a mental health professional online, making health consultations, education, support, and more.
